In interesting look back at the historical record with this article at TalkingPointsMemo shows that the last time a president had his nominee blocked liked Mitchell McConnell is proposing was when the Whigs controlled the Senate.
The closest comparison to the wholesale rejection President Obama is about to face with his nominee is President John Tyler, who holds the unenviable record of having four of the five men he put forward fail to make it to the Court. The fight was part of a larger clash between Tyler and the Whig-controlled Senate, where Whig lawmakers hoped Sen. Henry Clay of Kentucky would win the next presidential election in 1844.
Over the course of 15 months in 1844 and 1845, in an effort to fill two Supreme Court vacancies, Tyler submitted and resubmitted his nominees a total of nine times. Samuel Nelson was finally confirmed in the last weeks of Tyler's presidency. But the second vacancy wasn't filled until well after Tyler left office, with the confirmation of Robert Cooper Grier in 1846, more than two years after the seat was opened up by the death of Henry Baldwin. It seems unlikely the Scalia vacancy will break that record, assuming the Senate takes up a nomination in the months after the 2017 inauguration.
Considering the number of times I’ve read suggestions that unless the Republicans start to moderate their stance they will eventually be destined for the dustbin of history like the Whig Party this similarity might be downright prescient.