United States Congress, US Senate Photo/Becky Hammel · Public domain

Feinstein became mayor of San Francisco in 1978 after the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk, steadying a shaken city as its first woman in the office and later overseeing the 1984 Democratic National Convention. Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1992, she became California's first female senator and went on to author the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban. Reelected five times, she died in office in 2023 after more than three decades representing California in the Senate.