July 15, 1869 –
During war with Prussia, French ruler Napoleon III commissions Hippolye Mege Mouries to find a butter substitute.
A patent for margarine was issued on this date, it being based on beef fat instead of milk fat.
He called it Margarine (but you can call it Oleo) because the French word for pearl was margarite and he apparently had difficulty distinguishing butter from pearls –
a handicap that goes a long way toward explaining his many divorces.
But even with the tactically superior spread, the war was still lost.
The Haus of Dcaligari 