Hokkaido Timeline of Events

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Hokkaido

, formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is Japan's second largest island; it is also the largest and northernmost of Japan's 47 prefectural-level subdivisions. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaido from Honshu, although the two islands are connected by the underwater railway Seikan Tunnel...

Timeline of Events

1868

12.15.1868

Shogunate rebels found Ezo Republic in Hokkaidō.

1976

9.6.1976

Cold War: Soviet air force pilot Lt. Viktor Belenko lands a MiG-25 jet fighter at Hakodate on the island of Hokkaidō in Japan and requests political asylum in the United States.

1983

1.27.1983

The pilot shaft of the Seikan Tunnel, the world's longest sub-aqueous tunnel (53.85 km) between the Japanese islands of Honshū and Hokkaidō, breaks through.

2003

9.25.2003

A magnitude-8.0 earthquake strikes just offshore Hokkaidō, Japan.