On this day in history, May 15th, Lyman Frank Baum, the author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, was born in Chittenango, New York, in 1856. Also on May 15, 1856, San Francisco residents formed a Committee of Vigilance to tackle the high crime rate in their rapidly expanding city. In May 1916, Sholem Aleichem, a celebrated Yiddish author and humorist, passed away at his home in the Bronx, prompting widespread grief.
