Paul Tibbets was a United States Air Force brigadier general best known as the captain of the B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay, which dropped the Little Boy bomb on Hiroshima in August 1945. Born in 1915, he enlisted in the Army in 1937 and first flew anti-submarine patrols over the Atlantic after Pearl Harbor. In 1942 he flew early American heavy bomber missions over German-occupied Europe, including a raid of more than 100 bombers in October of that year. In September 1944 he was appointed to command the 509th Composite Group, which carried out the atomic bombings. After the war he took part in the Operation Crossroads tests at Bikini Atoll and later helped develop the B-47 Stratojet. He died in 2007, still a figure of intense public debate.

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.