Unsolicited mass messages date back to the telegraph, when Western Union let one message go to many recipients, and British politicians were sent an advert for a dentist in May 1864. The first documented electronic spam was sent on 3 May 1978, when marketer Gary Thuerk sent an advert for Digital Equipment Corporation computers to 393 people on ARPANET, instead of sending each message separately. It produced some sales but angered the network community. The first major commercial incident came in 1994, when two lawyers flooded Usenet with immigration-service ads, which became known as Green Card spam. Spam later moved to email, and by 2009 most of it was in English, with translation tools used for other languages.

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.