After
the success of Mother’s Day in the early twentieth century, many wanted to
create a similar holiday for other family members, and Father’s Day became the
choice to succeed Mother’s Day. Founded in 1910 by Sonora Smart Dodd, its first
celebration was in Spokane,
Washington on June 19, 1910. Dodd
wanted to celebrate her father who was a Civil War Veteran and a single parent
who raised six children. Initially the holiday did not have much success and it
faded into obscurity through the 1920s. In the 1930s, Dodd began promoting the
holiday again, but most Americans resisted as they saw it as an attempt by
merchants to repeat the commercial success of Mother’s Day. After many attempts
by Congress, and several U.S.
presidents to make Father’s Day a national holiday, in 966, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the first
presidential proclamation honoring fathers, designating the third Sunday in
June as Father's Day. It was made a permanent national holiday when President
Richard Nixon signed it into law in 1972.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father%27s_Day
