Harvey Milk was born on May 22, 1930 in New York to William and Minerva Milk. Born to a small middle-class JEwish family, he was one of two boys. He was well rounded and well liked by his peers, and he played football and sang opera, and like his brother, he worked in the family's department store, Milk's. He joined the U.S. Navy in 1951 and served as a diving instructor at a base in San Diego, California during the Korean WAr. He moved to New York City upon discharge and worked a variety of jobs, including investment banking. However, he soon tired of finance and became friends with Greenwich Village gay radicals. He then moved to San Francisco in 1972 and opened a camera shop, putting his life and work right in the heart of the city's gay community. In San Francisco, he became more open about his sexuality, despite having been quiet about it for the majority of his life. As his camera shop, Castro Camera, became a neighborhood center, he found his voice as a leader and activist, and in 1973, he declared his candidacy for a position on the San Fran Board of Supervisors. He lost the election, but he tried again two years later, narrowly losing the same seat a second time. By this point, he was an outspoken leader in the gay community with connections, and in 1977, he finally won a seat and after being inaugurated on Jan 9, 1978, he became the city's first openly gay officer, as well as one of the first openly gay individual to be elected to office in the US. While his campaign incorporated gay rights into the platform, Milk also wanted to tackle a wide variety of issues, including child care, housing and a civilian police review board. Harvey Milk was assassinated on November 27, 1978 by a man who felt that Milk and Moscone were driving his city downhill with their liberal ideals and their deviance from traditional family values.