Feinstein was elected by the Board of Supervisors to become the first female mayor of San Francisco on December 4, 1978, a title she would hold for the next ten years.

In the mid-1970s, San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area were the scene of a series of anti-government bombings largely attributed to the New World Liberation Front, a leftist militant group.

The election ushered in "a range of legislators perhaps unmatched in San Francisco history in their diversity", including its first Chinese American (Gordon Lau), first unwed mother (Carol Ruth Silver), first black woman (Ella Hill Hutch), first homosexual (Harvey Milk) and first former firefighter (Dan White).

Debate among the board members was sometimes acrimonious and saw White verbally sparring with other supervisors, including Milk and Carol Ruth Silver.

Subsequently, White would cast the only vote in opposition to San Francisco's landmark gay rights ordinance, passed by the Board on April 3, 1978[12] and signed by Moscone soon after.

White stated that he could not support his family on only the $9,600-per-year Supervisor salary and that being forced to work two jobs was preventing him from adequately serving his constituents.

This alarmed some of the city's business interests and White's constituents, as it indicated the mayor would tip the balance of power on the Board and appoint a liberal representative for the more conservative district.

Prior to the group's move to Guyana, the Temple had been based in San Francisco, so most of the dead were recent Bay Area residents, as was Leo Ryan, the United States Congressman who was murdered in the incident.

He scheduled a press conference to make this announcement on November 27, at 11:30 a.m.; advance copy had been sent to newspapers with late editions so they could begin preparing their stories.

[19] He was carrying a five-round .38-caliber Smith & Wesson Model 36 Chief's Special loaded with hollow-point bullets[1] (his service revolver from his work as a police officer), and ten extra rounds of ammunition in his coat pocket.

[26] Dianne Feinstein, who was then president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, saw White run past her office door and called after him.

[27] Rumors about what had happened began to circulate, but were not confirmed until about 11:20 a.m.[28] At that time, Feinstein addressed assembled media which had expected the announcement of Horanzy's appointment.

Feinstein, shaking so badly that she required support from the police chief while speaking, instead announced to shocked reporters that Moscone and Milk had both been murdered.

[19] Approximately thirty minutes after leaving City Hall, White turned himself in at the SFPD's Northern Station precinct, at which he had previously served as a police officer, to Frank Falzon and another detective, both former co-workers.

[33][19] An impromptu candlelight march consisting of tens of thousands started in the Castro District and ended at the steps of City Hall.

Joan Baez led "Amazing Grace", and the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus sang a solemn hymn by Felix Mendelssohn.

The coroner who worked on Moscone and Milk's bodies later concluded that the wrist and chest bullet wounds were not fatal, and that both victims probably would have survived with proper medical attention.

[21] White's resignation, and all subsequent events including the shootings, caused positional changes inside San Francisco's city government.

At the top two levels, these were: White was charged with first-degree murder with two special circumstances, both of which had been passed into law through California Proposition 7 only three weeks before the assassinations.

Rather, the defense argued that White's depression led to a state of mental diminished capacity, leaving him unable to have formed the premeditation necessary to commit first-degree murder.

The verdict proved to be highly controversial, and many felt that the punishment so poorly matched the deed and circumstances that most San Franciscans believed White essentially got away with murder.

[41][42] Journalist Randy Shilts wrote a biography of Milk in 1982, The Mayor of Castro Street, which discussed the assassinations, trial and riots in detail.

The photo on the front cover of their 1980 album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, which shows several police cars on fire, was taken during the White Night riots of May 21, 1979.

"Saint Harvey: The Life and Afterlife of a Modern Gay Martyr" was shown in the main gallery in the Society's former Mission Street location.

[49] In January 2012, the Berkeley Repertory Theater premiered Ghost Light, a play exploring the effect of Moscone's assassination on his son Jonathan, who was 14 at the time of his father's death.