parallel 36°30′ north and the southern boundaries of Kansas and Colorado on the parallel 37° north created the No Man's Land that later became the Oklahoma Panhandle in 1889. While a significant part of Nevada (containing Las Vegas) is south of 36°30′, at the time of the admission of Nevada in 1864, it was in the New Mexico Territory. This land was not split off from the new Arizona Territory until 1871, when it was given to Nevada by the Federal government. The Compromise of 1850 made no attempt to divide California along the line of 36°30′, or to allow slavery south of it; the social and political conditions created by the California Gold Rush ruled out any such idea. In fact, California was immediately admitted to the union as a free state During the American Civil War (1861–65), all of the states located wholly south of 36°30′ north joined the Confederate States of America. All of the states with land north of the parallel, except Virginia, stayed in the Union, although Kentucky and Missouri had Confederate legislatures that were elected in parallel with their regular legislatures. Also Maryland, another slave state, was occupied by the Union Army under the commands of President Abraham Lincoln, and its legislature was thus pressured into voting not to secede. Naturally, Lincoln and the remaining members of the U.S. Congress wanted Maryland to stay in the Union in order to prevent the national capital city of Washington, D.C. from being surrounded by Confederate states, and hence being cut off from the rest of the Union. If such a thing had happened, then the Federal government would have been forced to move somewhere else further north, such as to Philadelphia. Around the world Starting at the Prime Meridian and heading eastwards, the parallel 36°30′ north passes through: {| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" ! scope="col" style="width:125px;"| Co-ordinates ! scope="col" | Country, territory or sea ! scope="col" | Notes |- | style="background:#b0e0e6;" | ! scope="row" style="background:#b0e0e6;" | Mediterranean Sea | style="background:#b0e0e6;" | |- | ! scope="row" | | Passing through Ténès, Blida, Héliopolis |- | ! scope="row" | | |- | style="background:#b0e0e6;" | ! scope="row" style="background:#b0e0e6;" | Mediterranean Sea | style="background:#b0e0e6;" | Passing just south of the island of Sicily, |- | ! scope="row" | | Mani Peninsula, island of Elafonisos and Cape Malea |- valign="top" | style="background:#b0e0e6;" | ! scope="row" style="background:#b0e0e6;" | Aegean Sea | style="background:#b0e0e6;" | Passing