The Kiss (1896) is a short Edison film of May Irwin and John Rice reprising the kiss from the Broadway comedy The Widow Jones, staged at the request of a New York newspaper. It was one of the earliest kisses on film, and the most popular Edison Vitascope film of 1896. Lasting only about twenty seconds, it showed a close-up of two actors kissing, which seemed shocking to some audiences and drew calls for censorship, a first sign of the arguments over what film may show.

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.