The student action started as a peaceful protest march by more than 20 000 youths against the use of Afrikaans on equal basis with English as a language of instruction in Black secondary schools, but escalated into a nation-wide revolt, irreversibly revitalising the struggle for liberation in South Africa. Apart from the language issue, students were also agitating for better education, equivalent to that of their White counter parts. When the police used teargas to disperse the crowd, the students started to throw stones at the police, who responded by firing live bullets at the protesters. At this stage thirteen year old Hector Petersen was killed. A Rand Daily Mail reporter described the scene as follows:

“The police then fired a few shots, some into the air and others into the crowd. I saw four school children fall to the ground” 

After this incident, chaos reigned. During the following days crowds attacked everything they associated with the White government. Vehicles and buildings were stoned and set alight and two White officials were beaten to death. The unrest was not confined to Soweto, but soon spread to other parts of the country. The police retaliated with force in an attempt to quell the rioting.

Youth Day marks not just the sacrifices made by the youth on that day, but also the sacrifices of those children who defied “Bantu Education” and, instead of pens, took up arms in the struggle for freedom.
Youth Day, June 16, previously known as Soweto Day, marks the celebration and commemoration of the events, which unfolded on 16 June 1976. It is celebrated annually since 1994.

Click here read our feature on June 16

Sources:

Kalley, J.A.; Schoeman, E. & Andor, L.E. (eds)(1999). Southern African Political History: a chronology of key political events from independence to mid-1997, Westport: Greenwood.
Muller, C.F.J. (ed)(1981). Five Hundred years: a history of South Africa; 3rd rev. ed., Pretoria: Academica, p. 537.

http://www.info.gov.za/aboutsa/holidays.htm#16june
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/16/newsid_
2514000/2514467.stm

http://africanhistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa060801a.htm
http://africanhistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa060801b.htm