Social Science Questions & Answers

Earth Day is a day that is intended to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth’s natural environment. Earth Day was founded by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in first held on April 22, 1970. While this first Earth Day was focused on the United States, an organization launched by Denis Hayes, who was the original national …

Gaylord Anton Nelson was an American Democratic politician from Wisconsin. He was the principal founder of Earth Day. In 1970, he called for Congressional hearings on the safety of combined oral contraceptive pills, which were famously called “The Nelson Pill Hearings.” As a result of the hearings, side-effect disclosure was required for the pill in patient inserts – the first …

Cigarette smoking is injurious to health – everyone knows that. Well, till a few decades ago, people were unaware that smoking could cause lung and heart diseases and cigarette packs never had a warning on them, like they do now. In recent years, research has shown that smoking is dangerous and it has now been made compulsory for all cigarette …

Holi Origin can be traced back to ancient times. It is believed that this festival of colors existed even before Christ. This Indian spring festival also known as Phagwa was celebrated by Aryans but was prominent in the Eastern part of India. There are many stories that are associated with the history of Holi and information about 2 of them …

Young Krishna is known to be very playful and mischievous. The story goes that as a child, Krishna was extremely jealous of Radha’s fair complexion since he himself was very dark. Holi Legend of Radha Krishna One day, Krishna complained to his mother Yashoda about the injustice of nature which made Radha so fair and he so dark. To pacify the …

Maha Shivratri, the night of the worship of Lord Shiva, occurs on the 14th night of the new moon during the dark half of the month of Phalguna (Feb / March) when Hindus offer special prayer to the lord of destruction. Reasons to celebrate Maha Shivaratri The absolute formless God, Sadashiv appeared in the form of “Lingodbhav Moorti” exactly at …

Maha Shivratri or Maha Sivaratri or Shivaratri or Sivarathri (Great Night of Shiva or Night of Shiva) is a festival celebrated every year on the 13th night / 14th day in the Krishna Paksha (waning moon) of the month of Maagha (as per Shalivahana or Gujarati Vikrama) or Phalguna (as per Vikrama) in the Hindu Calendar (that is, the night …

China clay, or kaolin, is usually mined from pits like this, for making pottery, or china, as well as other things such as plastics. To make porcelain (the finest kind of china) it is fused with china stone, or petuntse, at very high temperature.

The annual Ice Festival is held in Harbin, northern China, and the capital of the Heilongjiang Province. Harbin is known for its very cold winters. The month-long festival starts on January 5. Harbin’s Ice Festival is one of the world’s four largest Ice and Snow Festivals, along with Japan’s Sapporo Snow Festival, Canada’s Quebec City Winter Carnival and Norway’s Ski …

Probably the most important figure in modern Chinese history is Mao Tse-tung (1893-1976). Mao began organizing Communist groups in 1920. Fighting between Mao’s Communists and Chiang Kaishek’s Nationalists started in 1927 and continued until 1949 (though they did unite against the Japanese invaders in 1937). After the Nationalist forces had fled to Taiwan in 1949, the establishment of the People’s …