CNN Editorial Research
(CNN) — Here’s a look at the life of former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
Personal
Birth date: May 15, 1937
Death date: March 23, 2022
Birth place: Prague, Czechoslovakia
Birth name: Marie Jana Korbelova
Father: Josef Korbel, diplomat
Mother: Mandula Korbel
Marriage: Joseph Albright (1959-1983, divorced)
Children: Katharine, 1967; Anne and Alice (twins), 1961
Education: Wellesley College, B.A., 1959; Columbia University, M.A., 1968; Columbia University, Ph.D., 1976
Religion: Raised Roman Catholic, converted to Episcopalian
Other Facts
The first female secretary of state of the United States.
Known for wearing brooches or decorative pins to convey her foreign policy messages.
Her family escaped Czechoslovakia 10 days after the Nazi invasion.
Albright learned later in life about her family’s Jewish heritage.
Timeline
1976-1978 – Maine Senator Edmund Muskie’s chief legislative assistant.
1978-1981 – Serves as a White House staff member and congressional liaison for the National Security Council under Zbigniew Brzezinski in the Carter administration.
1981 – Senior fellow in Soviet and Eastern European Affairs at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
1982-1993 – Serves a dual appointment at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service: research professor of International Affairs and director of the Women in Foreign Service Program.
1984 – Works as foreign policy coordinator for the unsuccessful presidential campaign of Walter Mondale.
1984-1993 – Vice-chairman of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs.
1988 – Senior foreign policy adviser for the unsuccessful presidential campaign of Michael Dukakis.
1989-1993 – President of the Center for National Policy.
1990 – Works as an interpreter and adviser to Czechoslovakian President Vaclav Havel during his first state visit.
1992 – Foreign policy adviser to presidential candidate Bill Clinton.
January 27, 1993 – Is confirmed as the US ambassador to the United Nations.
January 23, 1997 – Albright is sworn in as the 64th secretary of state.
April 23, 1997 – Testifies on NATO expansion in hearings before the US Senate Armed Services Committee.
October 23-24, 2000 – Visits Pyongyang, North Korea, becoming the highest-ranking US official ever to visit the country or meet its leader, Kim Jong II.
January 20, 2001 – Albright leaves office when Clinton’s second term ends and President George W. Bush is inaugurated.
2001 – Founds global strategy firm The Albright Group LLC.
Winter 2001-present – Serves as ch