Paul is dead is an urban legend claiming that Paul McCartney died in 1966 and was secretly replaced by a look-alike. In the story, he died in a car crash, and the surviving Beatles, with help from Britain's MI5, hid the truth by planting clues in their songs and album artwork. The rumour began in 1966 but spread widely in September 1969, after reports on American college campuses. Fans searched lyrics, record sleeves and backward-played tracks for hidden messages, and by October 1969 the clue-hunting had become an international craze. The rumour faded after Life magazine published an interview with McCartney in November 1969, which helped people see the story as baseless. Sociologists, psychologists and communication scholars studied the phenomenon in the 1970s, since it showed how quickly a shared belief can grow through pattern-seeking. McCartney later joked about it with the title and cover of his 1993 live album, Paul Is Live.

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.