In Washington, Speaker James L. Orr of South Carolina brings down the gavel on the first session of the Thirty-fifth Congress of the United States. It will be adjourned until its return for the second session which will begin on December 6, 1858. (By John Osborne)

The Thirty-fifth Congress of the United States is in session in Washington, DC. It will sit until December 23, 1858 when it will take a holiday recess. (By John Osborne)

The Ladies' Mount Vernon Association agrees to purchase the 500 acre Mount Vernon estate, home of George and Martha Washington, from Mr. John A. Washington for $300,000, to be paid in installments over time. The Association will renovate the main house and open it to the public in 1860. (By John Osborne)

In a large celebration, the Boulevard de Sevastopol opens in Paris. It is the latest of the great developments in the city undertaken by its Prefect, Baron Georges Haussmann. The 1858 Stanford's Guide to Paris descibes the thoroughfare in the following terms: "This magnificent new street was opened on the 5th of April, 1858. It commences on the south side of the Boulevard St. Denis in continuation of the BOULEVARD DE STRASBOURG, on the north. The new boulevard constitutes, in conjunction with the Boulevard de Strasbourg, and another now being formed on the south side of the Seine, a grand central road, 4500 yards in length, from the Strasbourg Railway Station to the Harrier d'Enfer. It intersects the city in a direction nearly north and south, at right angles to the Seine and the Rue de Rivoli. The formation of this grand thoroughfare has been an undertaking of vast extent, requiring the demolition of a large number of houses and the rebuilding of two bridges across the Seine. Everything connected with the work, from the dimensions of the road and the system of drainage, has been executed on the boldest scale."