The hot dog descends from the Frankfurt frankfurter, an all-pork sausage eaten in Germany since the 13th century, and the Vienna beef variant spread to the United States with migrants. In 1893, Austrian Jewish immigrants Emil Reichel and Sam Ladany sold kosher all-beef frankfurters at the World's Fair in Chicago, and their company Vienna Beef was founded the next year. The classic toppings came together during the Great Depression at vegetable carts on Maxwell Street, where a 'Depression Dog' with lettuce, tomato, onions, peppers, mustard and relish became popular. Celery salt reflected local celery farms, and sport peppers came from the Mexican pavilion at the 1893 fair. Vendors rejected ketchup and insisted on all-beef dogs, partly to signal freshness after Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel The Jungle shocked readers about meatpacking.

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.