Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike takes office as prime minister of Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka), making her the world's first female head of government. She rose to power as the widow of prime minister Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike (assassinated the year before by a Buddhist monk), taking over the leadership of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. "There will be need for a new word. Presumably, we shall have to call her a Stateswoman. This is the suffragette's dream come true," wrote London's Evening News.
* Obituary after her death in 2000: @
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