INTERNATIONAL: The U.S. flag on the White House was lowered to half-mast to honor former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who died at the age of 84 who died on Wednesday,March 23.

Albright, has fled the Nazis as a child in her native Czechoslovakia during World War Two then rose to become the first female U.S. secretary of state and, in her later years, a pop culture feminist icon.

Her family has announced her death on Twitter and said she had died of cancer. Leaders, diplomats and academics remembered her as a trailblazer on the world stage.

Albright has served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 1993-1997 in U.S. President Bill Clinton's administration. He then nominated her to become the first female secretary of state and she has served in that role from 1997-2001.

"Madeleine Albright was a force. She has defied convention and broke barriers again and again," U.S. President Joe Biden has said. He has directed U.S. flags be flown at half-staff at the White House and government buildings, including embassies, until March 27.