The 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens were the first international Olympic Games of the modern era, organised by the International Olympic Committee, which Pierre de Coubertin had founded two years earlier. Fourteen nations and about 240 athletes took part, nearly all European, and the host Greeks made up over 65 percent of competitors. On April 6 the American James Connolly won the triple jump, the first Olympic medal awarded in more than 1,500 years. Greece's Spyridon Louis won the marathon, the games' highlight for the host crowd. The crowd at the Panathenaic Stadium was the largest ever to watch a sporting event at that time.

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.