Flora Lee (Kudlick) Fine (1906 - 1986)

Refresh this page to see various historical events that occurred during Flora's lifetime.

In 1906, in the year that Flora Lee (Kudlick) Fine was born, English biochemist Frederick Hopkins concluded that vitamins are essential to the human body and that a lack of vitamins caused scurvy and rickets. Scurvy and rickets were both huge problems in sailors that were at sea for extended time and the addition of vitamin C, vitamin D, and calcium in their diets helped eradicate the problem.

In 1924, at the age of 18 years old, Flora was alive when on January 21st, Vladimir Lenin, a leader of the Russian Revolution and the first leader of the Soviet Union died. He had survived two assassination attempts but had subsequent physical problems, suffering 3 strokes. He was in such great pain, it is said that he asked Stalin to poison him. The circumstances of his death are still disputed. He did oppose Stalin as the next leader - nonetheless, Stalin won a power struggle and ruled as a Soviet dictator until his death in 1953.

In 1950, when she was 44 years old, in February, Joe McCarthy gave a speech alleging that he had a list of "members of the Communist Party and members of a spy ring" who worked in the State Department. He went on to chair a committee that investigated not only the State Department but also the administration of President Harry S. Truman, the Voice of America, and the U.S. Army for communist spies - until he was condemned by the U.S. Senate in 1954.

In 1964, she was 58 years old when on June 11th, activist Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment in South Africa for conspiring to overthrow the state (because of his numerous anti-apartheid activities). He served 27 years in prison.

In 1986, in the year of Flora Lee (Kudlick) Fine's passing, on January 28th, the space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after launch. All seven crew members died. The cause of the explosion was later found to be a failed O-ring. The O-ring failure was due to the unusually cold conditions at Cape Canaveral.