Reagan nominates O'Connor; no woman has ever sat on the Supreme Court in 192 years

By the summer of 1981, no woman had ever sat on the U.S. Supreme Court in its 192-year history. On July 7, Ronald Reagan announced he was nominating Sandra Day O'Connor, an Arizona appeals court judge, to fill the seat of retiring Justice Potter Stewart, fulfilling a promise he'd made on the 1980 campaign trail. The Senate confirmed her that September by a vote of 99 to 0. Within a year she had received over 60,000 letters from the public, more than any other justice in history…