John Glenn, a Marine Corps aviator and one of the Mercury Seven astronauts, flew the Friendship 7 mission on 20 February 1962 and became the first American to orbit the Earth. He circled the planet three times. Before joining NASA he had been a fighter pilot in the Second World War, the Chinese Civil War and the Korean War, shooting down three MiG-15s. In 1957 he made the first supersonic transcontinental flight across the United States. He later served as a Democratic senator from Ohio from 1974 to 1999. In 1998, at age 77, he flew on Space Shuttle Discovery's STS-95 mission, becoming the oldest person to enter Earth orbit. He died on 8 December 2016 at 95.

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.