Sri Lankabhimanya Ranasinghe Premadasa was the third President of Sri Lanka from 2 January 1989 until his assassination in 1993. He also served as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 6 February 1978 to 2 January 1989. This makes Premadasa the longest-serving uninterrupted Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, having served in the post for nearly 11 years. He was the first person to be conferred with Sri Lanka's highest civilian award, the Sri Lankabhimanya in 1986 by President J. R. Jayewardene.