On 9 November 1967, the first issue of Rolling Stone was published in San Francisco. The music magazine was founded by Jann Wenner and the critic Ralph J. Gleason. It started as a small newspaper aimed at the rock audience that grew up with the counterculture, and gave serious critical coverage to rock when mainstream media often ignored it. It became known for in-depth music reporting, and in the 1970s for political writing, including work by Hunter S. Thompson, whose Fear and Loathing pieces appeared there. In the late 1990s it broadened its coverage to youth-oriented television, film and popular music.

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.