June 1981 - June 14, 1981 (Sunday)

June 14, 1981 (Sunday)

• California Medfly Crisis: A mistake was made in the implementation of sterile insect technique, a means of controlling insect populations by releasing sterile bugs to mix with fertile ones of the same species during breeding season, thereby lowering the number of new larvae. When an infestation of millions of the Mediterranean fruit flies began destroying crops throughout the state, the state agricultural department discovered that the flies released on June 14 weren't sterile, and that the effort to reduce the population had inadvertently increased it.
• Voters in Switzerland, where women were not allowed to vote in national elections until 1971, approved an equal rights amendment to that nation's Constitution.