Today in History
July 21, 1960
Sirimavo Bandaranaike becomes prime minister of Ceylon [Sri Lanka]
Bandaranaike is first woman in the world to be elected as premier of a democratic nation. The widow of Prime Minister Solomon Bandaranaike, who had been assassinated ten months earlier by a Buddhist monk, she is also the mother of three children, two teenage girls and a 12-year-old boy. Bandaranaike vows that she has the "strength and courage to face what comes when I am assigned to do a job." In 1994, Bandaranaike's daughter, Chandrika Kumaratunga, newly elected president, appoints her mother to a third term as prime minister. Bandaranaike dies October 11, 2000.
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