White Night riots were a series of violent events sparked by an announcement of a lenient sentencing of Dan White for the assassinations of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and of Harvey Milk , a member of the city 's Board of Supervisors who was one of the first openly gay elected officials in the United States . The events took place on the night of May 21 , 1979 ( the night before what would have been Milk 's 49th birthday ) in San Francisco . Earlier that day , White had been convicted of voluntary manslaughter , the lightest possible conviction for his actions . That White was not convicted of first-degree murder ( of which he was originally charged ) had so outraged the city 's gay community that it set off the most violent reaction by gay Americans since the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York City ( which is credited as the beginning of the modern gay rights movement in the United States )
assassinations
Moscone–Milk assassinations
White Night riots