On This Day - What happened 23 May

When the Salian dynasty ended with Henry V's death in 1125, the princes chose not to elect the next of kin, but rather Lothair, the moderately powerful but already old Duke of Saxony. When he died in 1137, the princes again aimed to check royal power; accordingly they did not elect Lothair's favoured heir, his son-in-law Henry the Proud of the Welf family, but Conrad III of the Hohenstaufen family, the grandson of Emperor Henry IV and thus a nephew of Emperor Henry V. This led to over a century of strife between the two houses. Conrad ousted the Welfs from their possessions, but after his death in 1152, his nephew Frederick I "Barbarossa" succeeded him and made peace with the Welfs, restoring his cousin Henry the Lion to his – albeit diminished – possessions.

Several Qing officials in Taiwan resolved to resist the cession of Taiwan to Japan under the Treaty of Shimonoseki, and on 23 May declared the island to be an independent Republic of Formosa.

In 1904 the Wrights built the Flyer II. They decided to avoid the expense of travel and bringing supplies to the Outer Banks and set up an airfield at Huffman Prairie, a cow pasture eight miles (13 km) northeast of Dayton. They received permission to use the field rent-free from owner and bank president Torrance Huffman. They invited reporters to their first flight attempt of the year on May 23, on the condition that no photographs be taken.

The British 1939 White paper stipulated that Jewish immigration to Palestine was to be limited to 15,000 a year for the first five years, and would subsequently be contingent on Arab consent.

In recognition of his efforts de Gaulle was promoted to the rank of temporary (acting, in Anglophone parlance) brigadier-general on 23 May 1940.

With a general election looming (there had been none for almost a decade), and with the Labour Ministers refusing to continue the wartime coalition, Churchill resigned as Prime Minister on 23 May 1945. Later that day, he accepted the King's invitation to form a new government, known officially as the National Government, like the Conservative-dominated coalition of the 1930s, but sometimes called the caretaker ministry.

Himmler bit into a hidden potassium cyanide pill and collapsed onto the floor. He was dead within 15 minutes. Shortly afterward, Himmler's body was buried in an unmarked grave near Lüneburg. The grave's location remains unknown.

In 1948, under direct orders from Mao, the People's Liberation Army starved out the Kuomintang forces occupying the city of Changchun. At least 160,000 civilians are believed to have perished during the siege, which lasted until October. PLA lieutenant colonel Zhang Zhenglu, who documented the siege in his book White Snow, Red Blood, compared it to Hiroshima: "The casualties were about the same. Hiroshima took nine seconds; Changchun took five months."

The Iranians hit the Iraqis with destructive air strikes and massive artillery barrages, crossed the Karun River, captured bridgeheads, and launched human wave attacks towards the city. Saddam's defensive barricade collapsed; in less than 48 hours of fighting, the city fell and 19,000 Iraqis surrendered to the Iranians.

On 23 May 1995, Java was originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform.

The Marshall Mathers LP was released in May 2000. It sold 1.76 million copies in its first week, breaking US records held by Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle for fastest-selling hip hop album and Britney Spears' ...Baby One More Time for fastest-selling solo album.

When Yamauchi, company president since 1949, retired on 24 May 2002, Satoru Iwata became the first Nintendo president who was unrelated to the Yamauchi family through blood or marriage since its founding in 1889.

On May 23, after a recount of the number of SARS patients, the WHO lifted the Tourism Warning from Hong Kong and Guangdong.

Kaká won the Champions League title when Milan defeated Liverpool 2–1 on 23 May 2007, avenging the previous loss on penalties two years before.

On May 23, 2013, Pearl Fernandez and Isauro Aguirre were arrested; Fernandez was arrested for felony child endangerment while Aguirre was arrested for attempted murder.

On May 23, 2015, Nash and his wife died in a car accident on the New Jersey Turnpike near Monroe Township, New Jersey. They had been on their way home from the airport after a visit to Norway, where Nash had received the Abel Prize, when their taxicab driver, Tark Girgis, lost control of the vehicle and struck a guardrail. Both passengers were ejected from the car upon impact. State police revealed that it appeared neither passenger was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash. At the time of his death, the 86-year-old Nash was a longtime resident of West Windsor Township, New Jersey. He is survived by his two sons, John Charles Martin Nash who lived with his parents at the time of their death, and the older, John Stier.

On May 23, 2016, Chumlee was charged with 20 felony counts, including drug and weapons charges. David Chesnoff, Russell's lawyer, confirmed that the reality TV star pled guilty to a felony weapons charge (unlawful possession of a firearm) and a gross misdemeanor of attempted drug possession in a deal which calls for three years of probation and counseling.

On May 23, 2016, the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the finding of fact by the jury that low-quality mortgages were supplied by Countrywide to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the "Hustle" case supported only "intentional breach of contract", not a fraud. The action, for civil fraud, relied on provisions of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act. The decision turned on lack of intent to defraud at the time the contract to supply mortgages was made.

Elizabeth had cataract surgery in May 2018. the surgery took place at King Edward VII hospital.

On 23 May 2019, Toshiba briefly suspended all shipments to Huawei, as a temporary measure while Toshiba determines whether or not U.S. made components or technologies are being sold.

On 23 May 2020, the WHO announced that the infection number has reached 5 million with 5,103,006 cases and the death tally was 333,401.

Dutch rebels defeated the Spanish in the Battle of Heiligerlee.

The Netherlands became independent from Spain.

The German composer, Thomas Eisenhut, was born in Aursburg, Germany.

The Scottish pirate legend, William Kidd, was hanged at London's execution dock at about 56.

The Italian royal painter, Andrea Appiani, was born in Milan in 1754.