In 1897 eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon asked whether Santa Claus was real, after classmates said he was not. Her father suggested she write to The Sun, a major New York newspaper, which promised that if it appeared there, it was true. The editor Francis Pharcellus Church replied with an unsigned editorial arguing that the most real things are often the ones we cannot see, such as love, generosity and imagination. The reply became the most reprinted editorial ever published in an English-language newspaper.

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.