In 1856 Eunice Newton Foote, an American amateur scientist from Seneca Falls, New York, sealed gases in glass cylinders, placed them in sunlight and measured how quickly they warmed. Carbon dioxide and water vapour heated up much more than ordinary air, showing that changing the proportion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere changes its temperature. She also suggested that a carbon-dioxide-rich atmosphere would give the earth a higher temperature, an early statement of the greenhouse effect. Her paper was not read at the Albany meeting because she was a woman, and it went largely unnoticed.

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.