Madeleine Albright, the first woman to be US Secretary of State, passed away at the age of 84, her family announced.
In 1996, former US President Bill Clinton appointed Albright at the head of US diplomacy, and she served in that capacity for the last four years of the Clinton administration, reports AP.
At that time she was the woman who had held the highest position in the history of the American administration.
Madeleine Albright was born in Prague as Marie Jana Korbelová, arrived in the United States as a refugee in 1948 and “soared to the heights of American politics”, the statement said.
In 2012 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian recognition in the United States.
Albright was one of the main proponents in the bombing of the FRY in 1999 while serving as the head of US diplomacy.
Photo: EPA / Radek Pietruszka