Technically the document begins by noting that it was approved by the National Assembly of France on August 26, 1789. That was the day they passed the final article and submitted the whole thing to the people. Yeah; it's not terribly exciting.

The first sentence of the preamble clocks in at a whopping 147 words. This massive opening line explains the many purposes of the rights that follow. (We're going to bullet those explanations, because we loathe run-on sentences.)

So: the opening line states that the representatives have created this list because:

• They believe that ignoring the fact that people have rights has messed up the French government
• They think that having a list of rights would be a nice reminder for future governments
• They think that a list of rights will act as a check on the power of both executive and legislative leaders
• They believe that citizens will be able to use this list to better complain if their rights are violated in the future

Yeah they do all that in one sentence. Way to go, guys.