In 1859, Congressman Daniel Sickles shot and killed Philip Barton Key, the U.S. District Attorney, in broad daylight on Lafayette Square in Washington. Key was the son of Francis Scott Key, and Sickles had reportedly discovered that Key was having an affair with his wife. The murder and the trial that followed captivated antebellum America and raised national debates about male honor, female virtue, insanity and the rule of law. Sickles was tried for murder and acquitted after arguing temporary insanity, one of the first times the defense was used successfully in such a case in the United States. The case is a window into the social codes of nineteenth-century Washington and the status of the courts in an era of intense public scrutiny.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.