Today in the Sobel Timeline: July 23

On July 23, 1899, the major naval battle of the Great Northern War took place when the Russian Far East Fleet and the Mexican Pacific Fleet fought the Battle of the Okhotsk Sea. The Russians lost sixteen ships, including two battleships, and suffered 20,000 men killed. The Mexicans lost no ships, and the only casualties suffered during the battle were nine men killed and fourteen wounded when a boiler exploded on the battleship Andrew Jackson.