Updated 9:47 PM EDT, Fri October 22, 2021
Colin Powell, the first Black US secretary of state whose leadership in several Republican administrations helped shape American foreign policy in the last years of the 20th century and the early years of the 21st, died from complications from Covid-19, his family said. He was 84.
He was the country's first Black national security adviser when he served at the end of Ronald Reagan's presidency, and he was the youngest chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President George H.W. Bush.
Powell's popularity soared during the 1991 Gulf War, when he became one of the administration's most trusted spokesmen. He was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal in March 1991 "in recognition of his exemplary performance in planning and coordinating" the US response to Iraq's invasion.
He became George W. Bush's first Cabinet selection, and as Bush's top diplomat, he was tasked with building international support for the War on Terror. In 2003, he delivered a speech before the United Nations in which he presented evidence that the US intelligence community said proved Iraq had misled inspectors and hid weapons of mass destruction. He later called his UN speech a "blot" that will forever be on his record.
Take a look at other stories that made headlines from October 14-21, as well as some photos that just caught our eye.
