The northern lights, or aurora borealis, appear in the sky over the Bamburgh lighthouse at Stag Rock in Northumberland, England on September 28, 2016. (Photo by Owen Humphreys/PA Wire via ZUMA Press)

Spain supporters celebrate as Spain's Nico Williams scores the opening goal in Madrid, Spain, July 14, 2024 during the screening of the final match between Spain and England at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Berlin Germany. (Photo by Andrea Comas/AP Photo)

A radiation monitor indicates 114.00 microsieverts per hour near the building housing the plant's No. 4 reactor, center, and an under construction foundation, right, which will store the reactor's melted fuel rods at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s tsunami-crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima prefecture, Wednesday, March 6, 2013, ahead of the second anniversary of the March 11, 2011 tsunami and earthquake. Some 110,000 people living around the nuclear plant were evacuated after the massive March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami knocked out the plant's power and cooling systems, causing meltdowns in three reactors and spewing radiation into the surrounding air, soil and water. (Photo by Issei Kato/AP Photo/Pool)

Photographers gather to take pictures of pilot Andre Borschberg (C) ahead of the take off of Solar Impulse 2-a solar powered plane- in Nanjing, China, May 31, 2015. The world's largest solar-powered airplane, Solar Impulse 2, took off from eastern China's Nanjing on Sunday to continue its round-the-world voyage. The Swiss-made plane left Nanjing's Lukou International Airport at 2:39 in the early morning, with former fighter pilot Borschberg at the controls alone for the entire 8,200-kilometer flight from Nanjing to Hawaii, the toughest leg of its marathon adventure. (Photo by Reuters/Solar Impulse)

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.

Photographer Brian Finke spent nearly two years traversing the friendly skies, following the life of flight attendants in the air and on the ground, from Delta and Hawaiian Air, to Hooters Air, Southwest, Air France, British Airways, Air Asia, and dozens more. His images of flight attendants waving, applying makeup and deboarding plans while smiling appear as if they were ripped from an advertisement in a glossy magazine. Here: Tiger Airways, Singapore, 2006. (Photo by Brian Finke/The Washington Post)

Protestors break through the barriers of the DNC in Park #578 during the March on the DNC 2024 in Chicago, IL on Monday, August 19, 2024. (Photo by Laura Thompson/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A man watches the approaching flames as the Springs fire continues to grow near Camarillo, California, on May 3, 2013. The wildfire has spread to more than 18,000 acres on day two and is 20 percent contained. (Photo by David McNew)