Father’s Day is a day on which the people of many countries express gratitude and appreciation for their fathers by giving them gifts or greeting cards. In the United States and Canada, Father’s Day falls on the third Sunday in June.
Sonora Louise Smart Dodd of Spokane, Washington, got the idea to set aside a special day to honor fathers in 1909, after listening to a sermon on Mother’s Day. She wanted to honor her father, William Jackson Smart. Smart’s wife died in 1898, and he raised their six children on his own. Dodd drew up a petition recommending adoption of a national father’s day. The Spokane Ministerial Association and the local Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) supported it. Through Sonora Dodd’s efforts, Spokane celebrated the first Father’s Day on June 19, 1910. Over the years, many resolutions to make the day an official national holiday were introduced. Finally, in 1972, President Richard M. Nixon signed Father’s Day into law.
