Ronald Reagan was the first U.S. president to have been divorced.

Wedding of Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman, 1940

Though he was married to his second wife when he took office in 1981, Ronald Reagan had previously been divorced, making him the first divorcé to serve as president of the United States. A former actor, Reagan met his first wife, actress Jane Wyman, while the two were co-starring in the 1938 movie Brother Rat. They started dating soon after and eventually married on January 26, 1940. Their union lasted nine years; the two strong personalities eventually grew apart, divorcing in 1949.

Reagan wasn’t single for long: He met Nancy Davis, the future first lady, just a few months later. Davis was an aspiring actor at the time who discovered her name was on the Hollywood blacklist — a career-killing list of actors suspected of having communist ties. She contacted the Screen Actors Guild president — Ronald Reagan — for help getting her name off the list. The pair met for dinner on November 15, 1949, and Davis was assured that it was a different actor of the same name who had been blacklisted. The two kept talking anyway, and started dating, leading to their wedding on March 4, 1952. They remained together until Reagan’s death in 2004.

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Ronald Reagan nominated the first female justice to serve on the Supreme Court.

During his 1980 presidential campaign, Ronald Reagan promised to nominate a woman to the U.S. Supreme Court if elected. No women had served on the bench before, or even been nominated for the position. The closest anyone came was arguably Florence Allen, a popular and qualified judge who was the first woman elected to the highest levels of state court, but who was ultimately overlooked for a Supreme Court seat by Franklin D. Roosevelt. Soon after Reagan took office, Supreme Court Associate Justice Potter Stewart retired and created a vacancy. While Reagan considered several female judges, he formally nominated Sandra Day O’Connor on August 19, 1981. She was unanimously confirmed to the position on September 21, 1981, assuming the role four days later to become the first of six women (so far) to serve on the highest court in the land. O’Connor held the position until her retirement in 2006.