On 2 November 1963, Ngo Dinh Diem, president of South Vietnam, and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu were arrested and assassinated during a coup led by General Duong Van Minh. The coup followed years of autocratic, family-centred rule and mass Buddhist protests against religious discrimination. When rebel troops attacked Gia Long Palace in Saigon, the brothers were not there; they had escaped to a loyalist shelter and misled the rebels by phone about their location. After agreeing to surrender with a promise of safe exile, they were killed in the back of an armoured personnel carrier on the way to military headquarters. The generals first claimed suicide, but photographs of the bodies contradicted that story.

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.