The town of Napoleon was first settled here in 1767 as a 640-acre British land grant to John Claudius Favre. In 1861 it was sold to Simon Favre, who built his home and businesses here. Residents were relocated in 1961 to make way for the buffer zone needed for engine testing at the John C. Stennis Space Center for NASA's Apollo Moon program. Napoleon is among Mississippi's oldest European settlements.