Madeleine Albright, first woman to serve as U.S. secretary of state, dies at 84

Madeleine Albright, the 64th U.S. secretary of state and the first woman to ever serve in the role, has died of cancer, her family said. She was 84.

In a statement posted to her Twitter page, Albright's family wrote that she died Wednesday "surrounded by family and friends."

Albright, born Marie Jana Korbelova, migrated from Prague to the U.S. in 1948, rising in American politics before becoming the secretary of state under former President Bill Clinton in 1997.