The History of Father’s Day:
Father’s Day was founded in Spokane, Washington, in 1910 by Sonora Smart Dodd. The first Father’s Day celebration was in the Spokane YMCA on June 19th, 1910. Her father, the Civil War veteran William Jackson Smart, was a single parent who raised his 6 children there. After hearing a sermon about Anna Jarvis’s Mother’s Day at Central Methodist Episcopal Church in 1909, she told her pastor that fathers should have a similar holiday honoring them. Although she initially suggested June 5th, her father’s birthday, the pastors of the Spokane Ministerial Alliance did not have enough time to prepare their sermons, and the celebration was moved to the third Sunday of June.
A bill to accord the national recognition of the holiday was introduced in Congress in the year 1913. In 1916, United States President Woodrow Wilson went to Spokane to speak at a Father’s Day celebration and wanted to make it official, but Congress resisted, fearing that it would become commercialized. United States President Calvin Coolidge recommended in 1924 that the day be observed by the nation but stopped short of issuing a national proclamation. Two earlier attempts to formally recognize Father’s Day had been defeated by Congress.
In 1957, U.S. Senator Margaret Chase Smith, wrote a proposal accusing Congress of ignoring fathers for 40 years while honoring mothers. In 1966, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers, designating the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day. Six years later, Father’s Day was made a permanent national holiday when President Richard Nixon signed it into law on April 24th, 1972.
Happy Father’s Day To All You Awesome Fathers Out There – https://www.therealmjtheterrible.com/happy-fathers-day-to-all-you-awesome-fathers-out-there/
Happy Father’s Day Dad! – https://www.therealmjtheterrible.com/happy-fathers-day-dad/
