Mechanical breathing began with a surprisingly crude idea: in 1543 Andreas Vesalius blew air into a dog's lungs through a reed tube inserted into its windpipe. Early resuscitation was shaped by bizarre tactics, such as 18th-century London societies that used tobacco smoke bellows to revive drowning victims. Negative-pressure devices like John Dalziel's 1832 tank respirator paved the way for the iron lung. Philip Drinker's iron lung, first used at Boston Children's Hospital in 1928, kept polio patients breathing until vaccines reduced the need for it.

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.