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.

A diver dressed in a Santa Claus costume swims at the Lotte World Aquarium in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, December 23, 2024. (Photo by Ahn Young-joon/AP Photo)

Colombian fans during the International Friendly match between Canada and Colombia at Sports Illustrated Stadium on October 14, 2025 in Harrison, Nueva Jersey. (Photo by Leonardo Ramirez/eyepix via ZUMA Press Wire/Alamy Live News)

A ranger of Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) tries to cover the eyes of 2.5-year-old female Southern white rhino, Elia, to calm down after being shot a tranquilizer from a helicopter during Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) rhino ear notching exercise for identification at Meru National Park, 350 km from Nairobi, Kenya, on April 5, 2018. (Photo by Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP Photo)

Gunfire was brought to the steps of President Truman's Washington home, Blair House, as two assassins tried to kill the chief executive, November 1, 1950. One of the gunmen, Oscar Collazzo of New York, lay wounded at the bottom of Blair House's front steps after the president's police guard had finished their work, at the cost of one guards' life, Dec. 9, 1950. The second gunman was killed. (Photo by Harvey Georges/AP Photo)

Belgium. Rosalie, 9, goes to school in Brussels. “At my school we have separate toilets for girls and boys on every floor. My classroom is on the 3rd floor. We have 22 toilets, which are shared between 230 pupils and 20 adults. The teachers at school let us go to the toilet whenever we need to”. (Photo by Tim Dirven/WSUP/Panos)

Los Angeles native Mike Stilkey has always been attracted to painting and drawing not only on vintage paper, record covers and book pages, but on the books themselves. Using a mix of ink, colored pencil, paint and lacquer, Stilkey depicts a melancholic and at times a whimsical cast of characters inhabiting ambiguous spaces and narratives of fantasy and fairy tales. A lingering sense of loss and longing hints at emotional depth and draws the viewer into their introspective thrall with a mixture of capricious poetry, wit, and mystery. (Photo by Mike Stilkey)

Ruben Belloso Adorna, a young artist from Seville, Spain, has taken the art world by storm with his incredibly detailed portraits of real-life and fictional characters drawn exclusively in pastel on wooden canvas.