The History of Fathers Day

It just took one person to create Fathers Day.

A young woman named Sonora Dodd came up with the idea in 1909 after listening to a sermon about Mothers day in church.

Her father was a Civil War veteran who had lost his wife when she had his sixth child, and he gave his all to raise their new baby and five other children alone. As an adult the true impact of her fathers hard work hit, and her girlhood idea started to take form. Sonora's father was born in June, so she chose to hold the first Father's Day celebration in Spokane, Washington on the 19th of June, 1910.

The holiday had grown so wide spread that President Calvin Coolidge, in 1924, supported the idea of a national Father's Day. President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation in 1966 declaring the 3rd Sunday of June as Father's Day. It took until 1972 for President Richard Nixon to sign it into law permanently and there you have it – both the history of fathers day and something truly positive to remember Richard Nixon for.