Constitution of 3 May 1791
Modern Europe's first written national constitution
On 3 May 1791 the Great Sejm adopted a constitution for the Commonwealth, Europe's first modern codified constitution. It abolished the liberum veto but was overturned after Russian intervention in 1792.
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Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1789 Storming of the Bastille — 2 years earlier
- 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen — 2 years earlier
- 1796 Jenner's first vaccination — 5 years later
- 1804 Coronation of Napoleon — 13 years later
- 1814–1815 Congress of Vienna — 23 years later
Africa
- 1798 Battle of the Pyramids — 7 years later
- 1804–1903 Usman dan Fodio's jihad and the Sokoto Caliphate — 13 years later
- 1805–1848 Muhammad Ali becomes ruler of Egypt — 14 years later
Asia
- 1815 Eruption of Mount Tambora — 24 years later
Americas
- 1776 US Declaration of Independence — 15 years earlier
- 1787 US Constitution — 4 years earlier
- 1791–1804 Haitian Revolution — same year
- 1803 Louisiana Purchase — 12 years later
- 1810–1826 Spanish American wars of independence — 19 years later
Oceania
- 1768–1771 Cook's first voyage — 23 years earlier
- 1788 First Fleet arrives in Australia — 3 years earlier
Alive at the time
- Catherine the Great (aged 62)
- George Washington (aged 59)
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (aged 42)
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (aged 35)
- Napoleon Bonaparte (aged 22)
- Ludwig van Beethoven (aged 21)
- Simón Bolívar (aged 8)
- Qianlong Emperor (aged 80)
- Immanuel Kant (aged 67)
- Alexander Suvorov (aged 61)