A common story says Benjamin Franklin wanted the wild turkey instead of the bald eagle as the national emblem. He did serve on a commission that tried to design a seal after the Declaration of Independence, but his proposed design showed Moses. His dislike of the eagle and his preference for the turkey appear in a 1784 letter to his daughter, written after the Society of the Cincinnati adopted an eagle badge. He never said this publicly. The bald eagle was in fact adopted for the Great Seal in 1782.

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.