Youth Day on 16 June

Youth Day on 16 June in South Africa commemorates the start of the Soweto riots of 1976, initially sparked by a government edict that all instruction in black schools would be held in Afrikaans. The iconic picture of Hector Pieterson, a black schoolchild shot by the police, brought home to many people within and outside South Africa the brutalities of the Apartheid regime. The mascot for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Zakumi, has his birthday on that day in 1994.