Red for Republicans and blue for Democrats is a recent convention that was not settled until the 2000 election. In 1976 NBC colored Republican Gerald Ford's states blue and Democrat Jimmy Carter's red, and in the 1980s the networks still changed colors from year to year. The scheme stuck during the Bush v. Gore recount in Florida, when networks showed the same red-and-blue map night after night for five weeks until the Supreme Court ended the contest. The colors then picked up meanings about rural versus urban America that nobody had planned.

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.