In 1796 the English physician Edward Jenner showed that inoculating people with material from cowpox protected them against smallpox, the most feared infectious disease of its era. Over the following centuries the vaccine was refined and adopted through national programmes across Europe, North America, the Soviet Union and island nations. Smallpox declined gradually as coverage grew, but it still killed millions through the twentieth century. In 1967 the World Health Organization launched a coordinated global campaign that combined mass vaccination with surveillance and rapid containment of outbreaks. The last natural case was recorded in Somalia in 1977, and the WHO declared the disease eradicated in 1980. It remains the only human disease to have been wiped out entirely.

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.