Obituary: Dianne Feinstein, trailblazing senator who defied CIA and White House

The camera bulbs flashed and Dianne Feinstein took the podium, beaming confidently in front of hundreds of cheering supporters.

"Tonight, history is being made," she declared. "In California, two women will be elected to the Senate of the United States."

Ms Feinstein was one of them. The 1992 election that saw an unprecedented number of women - four- elected to Congress' upper chamber. The phenomenon, dubbed "the year of the woman", heralded a new era in Washington, and Ms Feinstein was part of it.

Ms Feinstein spent the next three decades in the Senate until her death at age 90, which her office announced on Friday.

By this point, Ms Feinstein has become a symbol not of progress but of Congress' aging leadership. She spent the last two years in office facing calls to resign over health and cognitive issues that kept her away from Washington for several months.

Yet her career was full of historic moments, of which her Senate election was only one.

She was a ferocious political operator who witnessed an assassination, led a major American city, fought for gun safety regulations, battled with the US intelligence apparatus, and served as the unofficial dean of California politics.