From the 1950s, some psychiatrists used aversion therapy on gay men, pairing images of naked men with electric shocks in the hope of creating a lasting association with pain. The approach spread after Kurt Freund in Prague popularised it, and a 1955 British Medical Association committee report called for treatment centres for homosexual men. At least several hundred men in the UK were subjected to it, with hubs in Glasgow, Surrey, Manchester and Birmingham and individual researchers elsewhere. Patients often suffered lasting harm, including depression, suicidal thoughts, and in some cases sexual dysfunction. Homosexuality was removed from diagnostic manuals after campaigns by survivors and experts, but the broader practice of conversion therapy persists in various forms, and the UK's ban on it remains partial.

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.