Sirimavo Bandaranaike

Sri Lankan politician who, after her husband Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike was assassinated in 1959, led his party to victory in 1960 and became the world's first woman to serve as a national prime minister. She served three terms, 1960 to 1965, 1970 to 1977, and 1994 to 2000, pursuing socialist economic policies, a non-aligned foreign policy, and the promotion of the Sinhalese language and Buddhism, measures that deepened tensions with the country's Tamil minority. Her daughter Chandrika Kumaratunga later served as Sri Lanka's president.