14 Navy sailors dead in submarine fire, the travails of an FSB general, and massive flooding in Irkutsk Tuesday, July 2, 2019 This day in history: 166 years ago, on July 2, 1853, the Tsar's army crossed the Pruth River into modern-day Romania. The British empire, fearful of expanding Russian imperial power in Asia, responded by sending a fleet to keep the Ottoman Empire out of Russian control. The result was the Crimean War.