A person lights fire crackers during the celebrations of Mawlid al-Nabi, the birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammad, in Hyderabad, Pakistan, 04 September 2025. Mawlid is observed on the 12th day of Rabi al-Awwal (the third month of the Islamic calendar) in Sunni Islam and on the 17th day in Shiite Islam. (Photo by Nadeem Khawar/EPA)

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.

New Zealand photographer Niki Boon captured her children, who are growing up with limited electronics, in the photo series “Childhood in the Raw Photos”. Niki Boon began taking photos as a hobby while she was working as a physiotherapist in Scotland. However, the New Zealand native found her interest in the art waning while she travelled, and it wasn’t until she had returned home and started raising a family that her passion was rekindled. “Childhood in the Raw”, an ongoing photo series of her four children’s technology-free life on her 10-acre property in New Zealand, is the perennial fruit of this passion. (Photo by Niki Boon)

Rush-hour in Russia means one thing for this daredevil: train surfing! The 19-year-old daredevil who goes by the name Kobzarro started train surfing aged 15 as a way of escaping an oppressive family life. Here Kobzarro can be seen balanced on top of a train as it speeds through the wintery Russian environment. Kobzarro is so dedicated to train surfing that she rarely gets inside a train. Even in winter she prefers to travel in this less conventional way. It has resulted in a few run ins with the law, but Kobzarro says it has never resulted in anything more serious than a fine, with many police officers even being interested in the train surfing community. (Photo by Caters News Agency)

A California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer detains a protestor while clearing a pro-Palestinian encampment after dispersal orders were given at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus, on May 2, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. The camp was declared ‘unlawful’ by the university and over 100 protestors who refused to leave were detained during the operation. Pro-Palestinian encampments have sprung up at college campuses around the country with some protestors calling for schools to divest from Israeli interests amid the ongoing war in Gaza. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

People wear face masks while participating in the annual Memorial Day Parade on May 25, 2020 in the Staten Island borough of New York City. Dozens of cars and nearly 100 members of the patriotic motorcycle group Rolling Thunder joined the event. This year’s parade was diminished in size and in person-to-person contact due to the coronavirus outbreak. Across the country, events honoring the nation’s veterans have been cancelled or scaled back as America continues to experience high numbers of deaths and new cases of COVID-19. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

English reality television personality and country music singer Megan Elizabeth McKenna is seen at Soho House on May 24, 2018 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Splash News and Pictures)

A person waits for donations at the exit from the Fred Meyer parking lot on South 19th street in Tacoma, Friday, February 8, 2019. (Photo by Peter Haley/The News Tribune via AP Photo)