Laurence Sterne, the author of Tristram Shandy, published A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy on 27 February 1768 and died on 18 March, aged 54, of lung disease. Death runs through his work: in the first of the nine volumes of Tristram Shandy, published 1759 to 1767, Parson Yorick, a self-portrait of Sterne, dies, and the black page that follows is one of literature's famous experiments. His comic, digressive novels broke the rules of the form and influenced writers such as Joyce.

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.