First local Father's Day was celebrated on June 19, 1910, in Spokane,
Washington.
Father's Day was first celebrated on the third Sunday of June.
Sonora Louise Smart Dodd, of Spokane, Washington, started the tradition of
Father's Day in the honor of her dad, William Smart, a widowed Civil War
veteran.
In 1916, US President Woodrow Wilson approved the idea of observing an
annual Father's Day.
In1924, President Calvin Coolidge made Father's Day a national event.
In 1966 President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation
declaring the 3rd Sunday of June as Father's Day.
Father's Day is the fifth most popular card-sending holiday, with an
estimated $100 million in card sales. Husbands, grandfathers, uncles, sons
and sons-in-law are honored as well as father.
This is a big day for the 66.3 million fathers in America.
While not everyone in America is a fan of Father's Day, 72 percent of
Americans plan to celebrate or acknowledge Father’s Day.
Neck ties, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, are the number one gift for
Father’s Day.
According to greetings card makers Hallmark, Father’s Day is the
fifth-largest card-sending holiday.
These days, fathers are generally three years younger where births occur
outside marriage. The average age of the father where the birth occurred
outside marriage decreased from 28 to 26 between 1971 and 1991 but had
since increased to almost 28 again in 1999.
As the idea of Father’s Day was conceived by Sonora Dodd of Spokane,
Washington, to honor her father, she chose his birthday which was
proclaimed on June 19, 1910, by Spokane’s mayor as the first Father’s Day.
The first presidential proclamation honoring fathers was issued in 1966
when President Lyndon Johnson designated the third Sunday in June as
Father’s Day. Father’s Day has been celebrated annually since 1972 when
President Richard Nixon signed the public law that made it permanent.
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