Longtime Boston Mayor Tom Menino dead at 71

Thomas M. Menino, the longest-serving mayor in Boston history, died Thursday of cancer. He was 71.

The affable Menino served as mayor for two decades, overseeing a vast redevelopment of underutilized corners of the city and ingratiating himself to residents with a perennially packed public schedule. (A Boston Globe poll once found that 57 percent of Bostonians claimed to have personally met him.)

Menino left office earlier this year after declining to seek a sixth term due to ongoing health problems. He was being treated for cancer, but last weekend stopped chemotherapy and opted for palliative care.

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You can read the Globe's obituary here.