On 4 July 1910 in Reno, Nevada, Jack Johnson, the first Black world heavyweight champion, fought the retired former champion Jim Jeffries, billed as the 'Great White Hope'. Johnson won, and the result triggered race riots across the US and led to lasting bans on interstate distribution of fight films. The novelist Jack London, a boxing fan who had taken lessons and written boxing fiction, covered the bout from ringside and cheered on Jeffries, using racist stereotypes that his admirers and critics still argue about. His earlier writing, though, shows a more contradictory view of race and strength than the fight coverage alone suggests.

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.