Large silver deposits are found in Six Mile Canyon near Virginia City in Nevada

Several miners, working on land that Henry Comstock and Emanuel Penrod controlled on the slope of Mount Davidson in Nevada, discovered the first significant silver deposit in the United States. Silver had been found the previous year in the area but this huge discovery touched off a "silver rush" and Virginia City, Nevada grew up almost overnight. The discoverers of the so-called "Comstock Lode" all failed to profit, selling their interests for relatively small sums. Comstock, for example, shot himself in 1870 after numerous further prospecting failures. (By John Osborne)