79 Facts About Madeleine Albright

Madeleine Albright was the first woman to hold the position.

Madeleine Albright graduated from Wellesley College in 1959 and earned a PhD from Columbia University in 1975, writing her thesis on the Prague Spring.

Madeleine Albright worked as an aide to Senator Edmund Muskie from 1976 to 1978, before serving as a staff member on the National Security Council under Zbigniew Brzezinski.

Madeleine Albright served in that position until 1981 when President Jimmy Carter left office.

Madeleine Albright was appointed United States ambassador to the United Nations from 1993 to 1997, a position she held until her elevation as secretary of state.

Secretary Madeleine Albright served in that capacity until President Clinton left office in 2001.

Madeleine Albright served as chair of the Madeleine Albright Stonebridge Group, a consulting firm, and was the Michael and Virginia Mortara Endowed Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service.

Madeleine Albright was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in May 2012.

Madeleine Albright served on the board of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Madeleine Albright was born Marie Jana Korbelova in 1937 in the Smichov district of Prague, Czechoslovakia.

Madeleine Albright's parents were Josef Korbel, a Czech diplomat, and Anna Korbel.

In 1997, Madeleine Albright said her parents never told her or her two siblings about their Jewish ancestry and heritage.

Madeleine Albright learned to speak French while in Switzerland and changed her name from Marie Jana to Madeleine.

Madeleine Albright later obtained a position on a United Nations delegation to Kashmir.

Madeleine Albright sent his family to the United States, by way of London, to wait for him when he arrived to deliver his report to the UN Headquarters, then located in Lake Success, New York.

Madeleine Albright became dean of the university's school of international relations, and later taught future US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Madeleine Albright Korbel spent her teen years in Denver and in 1955 graduated from the Kent Denver School in Cherry Hills Village, a suburb of Denver.

Madeleine Albright founded the school's international relations club and was its first president.

Madeleine Albright attended Wellesley College, in Wellesley, Massachusetts, on a full scholarship, majoring in political science, and graduated in 1959.

Madeleine Albright became a naturalized US citizen in 1957, and joined the College Democrats of America.

Madeleine Albright was the nephew of Alicia Patterson, owner of Newsday and wife of philanthropist Harry Frank Guggenheim.

Madeleine Albright gave birth to another daughter, Katharine Medill Madeleine Albright, in 1967.

Madeleine Albright continued her studies at Columbia University's Department of Public Law and Government.

Madeleine Albright took a graduate course given by Zbigniew Brzezinski, who later became her boss at the US National Security Council.

Madeleine Albright returned to Washington, DC, in 1968, and commuted to Columbia for her doctor of philosophy, which she earned in 1975.

Madeleine Albright began fund-raising for her daughters' school, involvement which led to several positions on education boards.

Madeleine Albright was eventually invited to organize a fund-raising dinner for the 1972 presidential campaign of US Senator Ed Muskie of Maine.

Madeleine Albright chose to write on the dissident journalists involved in Poland's Solidarity movement, then in its infancy but gaining international attention.

Madeleine Albright traveled to Poland for her research, interviewing dissidents in Gdansk, Warsaw, and Krakow.

Madeleine Albright joined the academic staff at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, in 1982, specializing in Eastern European studies.

Madeleine Albright directed the university's program on women in global politics.

Madeleine Albright served as a major Democratic Party foreign policy advisor, briefing vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 and presidential candidate Michael Dukakis in 1988.

In 1992, Bill Clinton returned the White House to the Democratic Party, and Madeleine Albright was employed to handle the transition to a new administration at the National Security Council.

Madeleine Albright was appointed ambassador to the United Nations, a Cabinet-level position, shortly after Clinton was inaugurated, presenting her credentials on February 9,1993.

Madeleine Albright was the chief architect of the US campaign to block Boutros-Ghali's bid for a second term, despite his overwhelming base of support.

When Madeleine Albright appeared at a memorial service for the deceased in Miami on March 2,1996, she was greeted with chants of "libertad".

Madeleine Albright orchestrated a campaign on her own behalf that proved successful.

When Madeleine Albright took office as the 64th US Secretary of State on January 23,1997, she became the first female US Secretary of State and the highest-ranking woman in the history of the US government at the time of her appointment.

Madeleine Albright later stated that when she spoke to Albright about the letter, Albright told her that it had not been shown to her.

In February 1998, Madeleine Albright partook in a town-hall style meeting at St John Arena in Columbus where she, William Cohen, and Sandy Berger attempted to make the case for military action in Iraq.

Later that year, both Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright insisted that an attack on Saddam Hussein could be stopped only if Hussein reversed his decision to halt arms inspections.

Madeleine Albright became one of the highest level Western diplomats ever to meet Kim Jong-il, the then-leader of communist North Korea, during an official state visit to that country in 2000.

On January 8,2001, in one of her last acts as Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright made a farewell call to Kofi Annan and said that the US would continue to press Iraq to destroy all its weapons of mass destruction as a condition of lifting economic sanctions, even after the end of the Clinton administration on January 20,2001.

Madeleine Albright was reportedly flattered, but denied ever seriously considering the possibility of running for office in her country of origin.

Madeleine Albright was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2001.

Madeleine Albright accepted a position on the board of directors of the New York Stock Exchange in 2003.

Shortly after the appointment of the NYSE board's permanent chairman in 2005, Madeleine Albright submitted her resignation.

Madeleine Albright served on the board of directors for the Council on Foreign Relations and on the International Advisory Committee of the Brookings Doha Center.

Madeleine Albright was the co-chair of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor and was the chairwoman of the Council of Women World Leaders Women's Ministerial Initiative up until November 16,2007, when she was succeeded by Margot Wallstrom.

Madeleine Albright guest starred on the television drama Gilmore Girls as herself on October 25,2005.

Madeleine Albright made a guest appearance on Parks and Recreation, in the eighth episode of the seventh season.

Madeleine Albright appeared in two episodes of the CBS series Madam Secretary to offer advice to the fictional Secretary of State.

At the National Press Club in Washington, DC, on November 13,2007, Madeleine Albright declared that she and William Cohen would co-chair a new Genocide Prevention Task Force created by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the American Academy of Diplomacy, and the United States Institute of Peace.

Madeleine Albright endorsed and supported Hillary Clinton in her 2008 presidential campaign.

Madeleine Albright was a close friend of Clinton and served as an informal advisor on foreign policy matters.

Madeleine Albright is alleged to be a fraudulent pyramid scheme.

In September 2009, Madeleine Albright opened an exhibition of her personal jewelry collection at the Museum of Art and Design in New York City, which ran until January 2010.

In 2009, Madeleine Albright published the book Read My Pins: Stories from a Diplomat's Jewel Box about her pins.

In October 2012, Madeleine Albright appeared in a video on the official Twitter feed for the Democratic Party, responding to then-GOP candidate Mitt Romney's assertion that Russia was the "number-one geopolitical foe" of the United States.

Madeleine Albright described Donald Trump as "the most un-American, anti-democratic leader" in US history.

Madeleine Albright criticized the Trump administration for its delay in filling some diplomatic posts as a sign of "disdain for diplomacy".

Madeleine Albright served as an Honorary Chair for the World Justice Project.

Madeleine Albright later criticized Stahl's segment as "amount[ing] to Iraqi propaganda", saying that her question was a loaded question.

Madeleine Albright wrote, "I had fallen into a trap and said something I did not mean", and that she regretted coming "across as cold-blooded and cruel".

Madeleine Albright apologized for her remarks in a 2020 interview with The New York Times, calling them "totally stupid".

Counsel for Madeleine Albright's family stated that Harmer's claim was unfounded.

In late October 2012, during a book signing in the Prague bookstore Palac Knih Luxor, Madeleine Albright was visited by a group of activists from the Czech organization Pratele Srbu na Kosovu.

Madeleine Albright held honorary degrees from Brandeis University, Mount Holyoke College, the University of Washington, Smith College, Washington University in St Louis, University of Winnipeg, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Knox College, Bowdoin College, Dickinson College, and Tufts University.

In 1998, Madeleine Albright was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.

In March 2000 Madeleine Albright received an Honorary Silver Medal of Jan Masaryk at a ceremony in Prague sponsored by the Bohemian Foundation and the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In 2020, Madeleine Albright was named by Time magazine among the world's 100 powerful women who defined the last century.

Madeleine Albright was selected for the inaugural 2021 Forbes 50 Over 50; made up of entrepreneurs, leaders, scientists, and creators who are over the age of 50.

Madeleine Albright had been raised Catholic, but converted to the Episcopal Church upon her marriage in 1959.

Madeleine Albright's parents had converted from Judaism to Catholicism in 1941, during her early childhood, after fleeing Czechoslovakia for England in 1939, to avoid anti-Jewish persecution before they immigrated to the US They never discussed their Jewish ancestry with her later.

Madeleine Albright said that she did not learn until age 59 that both her parents were born and raised in Jewish families.

Madeleine Albright mentioned her physical fitness and exercise regimen in several interviews.

Madeleine Albright was listed as one of the fifty best-dressed over 50s by The Guardian in March 2013.

Madeleine Albright died from cancer in Washington, DC, on March 23,2022, at the age of 84.

Madeleine Albright was interred in Oak Hill Cemetery in Georgetown, Washington, DC.