On April 28, 1789, crewmen of the Royal Navy ship HMS Bounty, led by acting lieutenant Fletcher Christian, seized the ship from Captain William Bligh in the Pacific. They set him and 18 loyalists adrift in the ship's open launch. The Bounty had been sent to carry breadfruit plants from Tahiti to the West Indies, and a five-month stay in Tahiti left many crew members attached to the islands and less willing to accept naval discipline. Bligh's harsh punishments made matters worse, and after three weeks at sea Christian and others took control. Bligh navigated the launch more than 3,500 nautical miles to reach safety. The Admiralty sent HMS Pandora after the mutineers; it captured fourteen, but was wrecked on the Great Barrier Reef on the way home. Christian's group hid on Pitcairn Island, where by 1808 only one mutineer, John Adams, was still alive. Descendants of the mutineers and their Tahitian companions still live on Pitcairn.

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.