- U. S. Secretary of State (23 January 1997 to 20 January 2001).
- Madeleine's parents were Jews who converted to Catholicism in order to escape the Holocaust. Madeleine was supposedly only informed about her Jewish descent and heritage in her late adulthood (she stated she first heard about it at age 59). She had converted from Catholicism, as she had been raised, to join The Episcopal Church, the United States based member church of the worldwide Anglican Communion, a mainline Protestant denomination, in preparation for her marriage to Joseph Albright in 1959.
- Her daughters, twins Alice and Anne, were born in June 1961. She then gave birth to another daughter who died soon after birth, and then had daughter Katherine.
- Her parents, Josef Korbel, a Czechoslovakian diplomat, and Anna Spiegelova, named her Marie Jana; the name "Madeleine" came from "Madlenka," a childhood nickname.
- Albright served as the U.S. permanent representative (Ambassador) to the United Nations from 1993-1997, before being appointed by President Bill Clinton to be the 64th U.S. Secretary of State in 1997, the first woman to serve in that position. Previously, she was also a university professor and adviser on international affairs as a member of the National Security Council during the administration of President Jimmy Carter.
- She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama on May 29, 2012.
- Tied with Henry Kissinger as being appointed to and serving as United States Secretary of State, which is both the most senior U.S. cabinet position, and the highest ranked U.S. cabinet position achieved by any foreign-born U.S. political appointee of any president.
- Former daughter-in-law of Ivan Le Lorraine Albright.
- She became so renowned for wearing and for her huge collection of brooches, that she was asked to lend a large selection of them for the purpose of curating an exhibition for a touring national museum show. "The first major museum exhibition of jewelry from the personal collection of Madeleine Albright premiered at the Museum of Arts and Design on September 30, 2009 and closed on January 31, 2010. Read My Pins: The Madeleine Albright Collection featured more than 200 pins, many of which Secretary Albright wore to communicate a message or a mood during her diplomatic tenure." Thereafter, "Read My Pins traveled to a total of 22 museums and presidential libraries nationwide over nine years. In 2017 Secretary Albright announced she would donate the full exhibition to the permanent collection of the United States Diplomacy Center".
- Beginning with President Jimmy Carter, she has advised every Democratic U.S. president since, either by being officially appointed to a government position (served on the National Security Council in the Carter Administration, served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and Secretary of State in the Administration of President Bill Clinton, and has been an informal adviser to President Barack Obama, and to President Joe Biden. In addition, she also informally advised Republican President George W. Bush on a number of occasions.
- Served on the board of directors of the Council on Foreign Relations.
- She was awarded honorary degrees from Brandeis University in 1996, University of Washington in 2002, Smith College in 2003, Washington University in St. Louis in 2003, University of Winnipeg (Manitoba, Canada) in 2005, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2007, Knox College in 2008, Dickinson College in 2014, and Tufts University in 2015.
- In 1948, Albright immigrated with her family from Czechoslovakia (the part made up of what is now the Czech Republic) to the United States, settling in Denver, Colorado.
- After her retirement as Secretary of State in 2001, she was awarded the U.S. Senator H. John Heinz III Award for Greatest Public Service by an elected or appointed official, given annually by the Jefferson Awards Foundation.
- She was a polyglot, meaning that besides English, she also spoke Russian, Czech, French, German, Polish, and Serbo-Croatian.
- In 1975, she earned a PhD from Columbia University, writing her doctoral thesis on the Prague Spring of 1968.
- Was a 1955 high school graduate of Kent Denver School, Cherry Hills Village (a suburb of Denver), Colorado, USA.
- Madeleine Albright became a citizen of the United States in 1957.
- She attended Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts, USA, on a full academic scholarship, graduating in 1959.
- In 2021, Forbes Magazine selected Madeleine Albright for its first Forbes 50 Over 50; comprised of entrepreneurs, leaders, scientists and creators who are over the age of 50.
- Passed away five months after Colin Powell, whom also served as Secretary of State. They were also born one month apart in 1937. Albright in fact, previously attended and spoke at Powell's funeral.
- Jazz musician Herbie Hancock performed his song "Maiden Voyage" at her funeral.
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