President Buchanan signs the Nevada Territory into existence
James Buchanan signed into law the recently passed bill and the Territory of Nevada came into being. Abraham Lincoln became president two days later and it was left to him to appoint James W. Nye of New York as the first territorial governor. Nevada was admitted as the thirty-sixth state on October 31, 1864. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
James W. Hulse, The Nevada Adventure (Reno, NV: University of Nevada Press, 1965), 99.