On 25 November 1884 the surgeon Rickman Godlee operated on a 25-year-old Scottish farmer named Henderson at the Hospital for Epilepsy and Paralysis in London, in what was the world's first operation to remove a primary brain tumour. Henderson had suffered facial twitching, seizures, loss of use of one arm and severe headaches. The neurologist Alexander Hughes Bennett used the brain maps developed by David Ferrier, which linked specific brain areas to bodily movements, to predict the tumour's location near the fissure of Rolando. Godlee cut into the skull with several neurologists advising him and found the tumour less than a centimetre below the surface, exactly where predicted. The glioma, about the size of a walnut, was removed. Henderson recovered at first, but he died of meningitis a month later, as infection was then untreatable with antibiotics.

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.