Ernő Rubik, a Budapest lecturer in architecture and design, built the cube in the mid-1970s to solve a structural problem: how to let many small pieces rotate independently while remaining one coherent object. He only realised it was a puzzle after scrambling it and taking about a month to restore it. Rubik patented it in Hungary in 1975, although the American Larry Nichols had earlier patented a magnet-based cube. Rubik's version used interlocking plastic pieces, which were sturdier and turned more smoothly. After a 1979 toy fair in Nuremberg, the cube was licensed to Ideal Toys, which sold it worldwide and renamed it after its inventor in 1980. Between 1980 and 1983 around 200 million cubes were sold, before sales collapsed.

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.