The very first Father’s Day was celebrated in Spokane, Washington, in 1910 after a woman named Mrs. John B. Dodd pushed to create a special day to celebrate dads.
Dodd was looking for a way to honor her own father, William Smart, a Civil War vet and single father of six.
Smart was widowed after his wife died in childbirth, and he was left alone to raise his kids on a rural farm in Washington.
Dodd originally petitioned for Father Day’s to be celebrated on the first Sunday in June – her dad’s birthday – but the Spokane council couldn’t get the proposal heard until the third Sunday in June, hence the holiday’s current calendar standing.
Father’s day gained government backing when President Calvin Coolidge supported the idea in 1924, but wasn’t officially proclaimed a national holiday until 1966, under Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration.
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