Luggage was once mostly heavy wooden or leather trunks that servants carried for wealthy travelers. Suitcases came in the late 19th century, designed to carry suits without creasing them, and gained popularity as rail and cruise travel spread. In 1970 Bernard D. Sadow, a luggage executive, was struggling with two heavy suitcases in Puerto Rico when he saw a worker rolling a machine on a wheeled platform. He attached casters to a suitcase and added a strap to pull it, and department stores at first resisted because they thought men would find rolling luggage unmanly. Macy's began selling it in October 1970. In 1987 Robert Plath, a Northwest Airlines pilot, invented the upright two-wheeled Rollaboard after watching passengers struggle with bags. This design replaced Sadow's model within a few years.

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.