Assassinated in 1978 by a fellow politician, Harvey Milk died in San Francisco, after achieving prominence as the first openly gay politician in the United States. Milk was two years into serving his first term on the city's legislative body, the Board of Supervisors. Having attracted national attention, his brief political career had symbolic significance for the nation's gay community. Then, in November, fellow board member Daniel White killed Milk and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone inside City Hall. White's unusual trial defense--he blamed junk food for making him kill--reduced his conviction to manslaughter, and a light sentence produced outrage and rioting.

Born on May 22, 1930, in Woodmere, New York, Milk was the son of a retail-clothing family. Enlisting in the Navy, he served in the Korean War and later became an investment banker in Manhattan. A conservative in the 1960s, he campaigned for the Republican politician Barry Goldwater. Milk's...