When did Father’s Day start?
The holiday, which takes place every year on the third Sunday of June, will take place on June 17 this year. As the day is only four days away, we thought we’d share some of the
history of Father’s Day, which has its origins in 1909 but didn’t become celebrated until 1910.
Back in May of 1909, Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, Wash. was sitting in church listening to a Mother’s Day sermon, which inspired her to create a similar day for her dad, William Jackson Smart. Sonora’s mother had died in childbirth, while her father was a Civil War veteran who raised her singlehandedly, along with his five other children.
In 1910, Sonora wanted to celebrate Father’s Day on June 5th, which was her father’s birthday, and petitioned for the holiday to be recognized in her city. Needing more time to arrange the celebrations, the Spokane mayor pushed the date back by two weeks, creating the first Father’s Day on June 19, 1910, according to the Spokane Regional Convention and Visitor Bureau.
However, it took a long time to make Father’s Day an official U.S. holiday, with President Lyndon Johnson issuing the first presidential proclamation to honor fathers in 1966. But it wasn’t until 1972 that President Richard Nixon signed the public law to make the day a permanent holiday on that year.
