A person is detained after a shooting incident of Slovak PM Robert Fico, after a Slovak government meeting in Handlova, Slovakia, on May 15, 2024. (Photo by Radovan Stoklasa/Reuters)

Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner are seen filming at the “One Night Only” set in SoHo, Manhattan on November 07, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

China's independently developed Zhuque-3 reusable test rocket conducts a flight test at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on September 11, 2024 in Jiuquan, Gansu Province of China. China's private space company LandSpace successfully conducted a 10-kilometer vertical takeoff and vertical landing (VTVL) test on September 11. (Photo by Ni Yanqiang, Zeng Yangxi/Zhejiang Daily Press Group/VCG via Getty Images)

Mug shot of William Stanley Moore, 1 May 1925, Central Police Station, Sydney. This picture appears in the Photo Supplement to the NSW Police Gazette, 28 July, 1926 captioned: “Opium dealer. Operates with large quantities of faked opium and cocaine. A wharf labourer; associates with water front thieves and drug traders”. (Photo by NSW Police Forensic Photography Archive, Justice & Police Museum, Histiric Houses Trust of NSW)

Vanessa, thirty-five, had three children with an abusive husband. She “lost her mind, started doing heroin”, after losing the children, who were taken away and given to her mother. The drugs led to homelessness and prostitution. She grew up on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, but now spends her time in Hunts Point, “trying to survive everyday. Just doing whatever it takes”.

Do you think that history is a science? Well, not exactly. First, and foremost, history is the state's “legend of wars”, it’s official regalia. Of course, public historians are not interested in scientific truth – quite the opposite. In this respect, any attempt to present a state’s history as altruistic and benevolent as possible is welcomed and encouraged – as opposed to any revisionism attempts that may be more accurate. In this matter, Chinese have surpassed us all – they revised in highly creative manner (but rather shamelessly) the technology already invented by Europeans, a process that resulted in oldest state on the planet. Here is an interesting paradox: ask any sinologist about the Middle Kingdom during second century B.C., and he will describe it to you in such a vivid manner as if he has been living there all his life – but as soon as you will ask him to describe Chinese history in the 19-20th centuries… let's say, his eagerness will be greatly diminished. However, we will discuss China in a different article, and in the meantime we will try to understand how exactly historic “legend of wars” is formed and functions – based on a specific and well-known example. A great example is Ferdinand Magellan's first voyage around the world.

Smithfield meat porters march on the Home Office, bearing a petition which calls for an end to all immigration into Britain, 25th August 1972. (Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Bolivia's president Evo Morales holds his scared staffs of power during a blessing by Aymaran spiritual guides, in a traditional ceremony at the archeological site Tiwanaku, Bolivia, Wednesday, January 21, 2015. Morales is set to begin a new term Thursday, that will make him the Andean nation's longest-serving leader, riding high on a wave of unprecedented growth and stability. (Photo by Juan Karita/AP Photo)