Eight days before the presidential election of 1864, Nevada became the 36th state in the union, despite lacking the minimum requisite 60,000 residents in order to become a state. (At the time Nevada's population was little more than 10,000.) Rather than sending the Nevada constitution to Washington by Pony Express, the full text was sent by telegraph at a cost of $4,303.27, the most costly telegraph on file at the time for a single dispatch. The response from Washington came on October 31, 1864: "the pain is over, the child is born, Nevada this day was admitted into the Union."

Nevada is officially known as the "Silver State" because of the importance of silver to its history and economy. It is also known as the "Battle Born State" because it achieved statehood during the Civil War.

The first Europeans to explore the region were Spanish. They called the region Nevada ("snow-covered") because of the snow which covered the mountains in winter like the Sierra Nevada ("snow-covered mountains") in Spain.

While Las Vegas' tolerance for numerous forms of adult entertainment have earned it the title of "Sin City", the term dates back to 1906 and the city's original red light district, Blocks 16 and 17, where liquor was sold to railroad workers and travelers.

About 86% of the state's land is managed by various jurisdictions of the U.S. federal government, both civilian and military--the highest percentage of any state.

Area 51, officially called Homey Airport or Groom Lake, is a highly classified United States Air Force facility located within the Nevada Test and Training Range. The intense secrecy surrounding the base has made it the frequent subject of conspiracy theories and a central component of UFO folklore.

Before European contact, American Indians of the Paiute, Shoshone, and Washoe tribes inhabited the land that is now Nevada. Today, thirty-two Indian Reservations and Colonies stretch across the state.

Nevada was the primary testing location of American nuclear devices from 1951 to 1992. During that time, 928 nuclear tests were performed at the Nevada Test Site just 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Of those, 828 were underground.

Las Vegas is home to over 150,000 hotel rooms--more than any other city on the planet.

Once a year, tens of thousands of people gather in Nevada's Black Rock Desert to create Black Rock City, a temporary metropolis dedicated to community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance, but Burning Man derives its name from its culmination, the symbolic burning of a large wooden effigy, referred to as "The Man".