Senate votes 99-0: Sandra Day O'Connor becomes the first woman on the Supreme Court

Seventy-seven days after Ronald Reagan called her with the news, Sandra Day O'Connor faced her final hurdle. On September 21, 1981, the U.S. Senate confirmed her as an associate justice by a vote of 99 to 0, with only Montana's Max Baucus absent. She was sworn in days later as the first woman ever to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court. Baucus later sent her a copy of the novel A River Runs Through It by way of apology…