Anti-pollution protesters wearing traditional costumes and contemporary gas masks ride bicycles in the Qingming Grand river park in Kaifeng, Henan Province, China on January 1, 2017. The Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau extended an “orange alert” for heavy air pollution for three more days. (Photo by SIPA Asia/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A man stands next to a barricade blocking a road during a protest calling on the government to help ease the economic effects of an harmful algal bloom that had affected their livelihoods at Chiloe island in Chile, May 6, 2016. (Photo by Pablo Sanhueza/Reuters)

A sand carver works on a sculpture during the Sand Sculpture Festival “Dreams” in Ostend, Belgium on June 18, 2019. (Photo by Yves Herman/Reuters)

Drag queens Maude Boate, Anita Wiglit and Kita Mean pose for a photograph before boarding the NSW TrainLink Silver City Stiletto train at Central station in Sydney, Australia, 12 September 2019. Drag queens and kings will travel to the outback NSW town of Broken Hill to attend the annual Broken Heel festival, paying homage to the iconic Australian film “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert”. (Photo by James Gourley/AAP)

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)

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 boy pushes a donkey cart loaded with bundles of cotton blooms that were collected by women cotton pickers in Meeran Pur village, north of Karachi September 25, 2014. Women make up the bulk of Pakistan's half a million cotton producers, but labour rights activists say they are often exploited by overseers, who often withhold their wages and may subject some of them to sexual harassment. (Photo by Akhtar Soomro/Reuters)

“Daredevil photographer Krystle Wright suffered a catalogue of injuries after an accident on a shoot in Pakistan. The 26-year-old was left with internal bruising, tendon damage, two fractures, a torn ligament and 10 stitches above her eye following the horrific fall in the Himalayas. Wright took to the air on a dual paraglider and flew at a stomach-churning 18,000 feet to capture the incredible images. But as she neared the end of her trip Wright hit a bolder and blacked out following a bad take-off. The keen photographer, from Queensland, Australia, has travelled the world shooting some of the most awe-inspiring extreme sport stunts”. – Caters News. Photo: Screenshot of Krystle and Hernan, taken on a foot mounted GoPro. (Photo by Krystle Wright/Caters News)