The Big Mac was created by Jim Delligatti, a Pittsburgh-area McDonald's franchise owner, in the kitchen of his first restaurant in Ross Township. He later said he did not invent the double-decker burger so much as copy one sold by the Big Boy chain since the 1940s, and he designed his version to compete with Big Boy. It debuted at his Uniontown, Pennsylvania, restaurant on 22 April 1967 for 45 cents. The burger had two earlier names, the Aristocrat and the Blue Ribbon Burger, which both failed in the market. The name Big Mac came from a 21-year-old advertising secretary at McDonald's corporate headquarters, and it was added to every US McDonald's menu in 1968.

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.