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Sandra Day O'Connor takes the oath; the Supreme Court's all-male run ends after 192 years

Chief Justice Warren Burger administers the oath as her husband John looks on.

For 192 years, every justice who sat on the Supreme Court had been a man. That ended on September 25, 1981, when Sandra Day O'Connor, an Arizona Court of Appeals judge, took the judicial oath from Chief Justice Warren E. Burger with her husband John watching. President Reagan had nominated her in August to fulfill a campaign promise, and the Senate had confirmed her unanimously days earlier. She served on the Court until 2006…

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More from September 25
1789

Congress sends twelve amendments to the states, ten of them the Bill of Rights

Two other amendments ride along, one on congressional pay that would wait two centuries to become law.
1775

Ethan Allen surrenders outside Montreal after his flanks bolt and his backup never comes

Ninety minutes of fire, and the man who took Fort Ticonderoga without a shot is a British prisoner.
1997

Atlantis lifts off at night, headed for a wounded Russian station

Commander James Wetherbee's crew carries a French astronaut, David Wolf as a replacement for Michael Foale, and a repair spacewalk.
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The bill protects the South Fork of the Kaweah, Garfield Grove, and Hockett Meadow from the loggers already at work in the southern Sierra.
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Read the full September 25 edition →Everything that happened on September 25 →
More from Cold War America
1949

The North Atlantic Treaty takes effect; twelve nations are now bound to defend each other

Four months after the signing in Washington, Article 5's promise becomes binding law.
1968

Democrats open in Chicago; protesters scale a Civil War statue in Grant Park

Police pull a demonstrator down and break his arm as chants of "kill the pigs" rise over the park.
1962

Mariner 2 lifts off for Venus, five weeks after its twin veered into the Atlantic

An Atlas-Agena rocket carries the patched-together probe off Launch Complex 12 before dawn.
1963

Two hundred fifty thousand hear King say he has a dream, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial

Mahalia Jackson calls out from behind him, and King leaves his prepared text behind.
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