Henry Ford's first car company, the Henry Ford Company, was founded in November 1901, but he left it and it became the Cadillac Motor Company. In 1903 the Ford Motor Company launched in a converted factory with $28,000 in cash from twelve investors, including John and Horace Dodge. Ford was not the first president: the local banker John S. Gray was chosen to reassure investors who feared Ford would leave again. In 1908 the company introduced the Model T, and in 1913 it opened the first moving assembly line at its Highland Park plant. Within a decade it led the world in assembly line production.

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.