when did father's day become a national holiday
Father's Day A bill to accord national recognition of the holiday was introduced in Congress in 1913.[18] In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson went to Spokane to speak at a Father's Day celebration[19] and he wanted to make it an officially recognized federal holiday, but Congress resisted, fearing that it would become commercialized.[20] US President Calvin Coolidge recommended in 1924 that the day be observed throughout the entire nation, but he stopped short at issuing a national proclamation.[19] Two earlier attempts to formally recognize the holiday had been defeated by Congress.[19][21] In 1957, Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith wrote a Father's Day proposal accusing Congress of ignoring fathers for 40 years while honoring mothers, thus "[singling] out just one of our two parents".[21] In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers, designating the third Sunday in June as Father's Day.[20] Six years later, the day was made a permanent national holiday when President Richard Nixon signed it into law in 1972.[19][20][21][22]
Father's Day (United States) Father's Day was founded in Spokane, Washington at the YMCA in 1910 by Sonora Smart Dodd, who was born in Arkansas.[4] Its first celebration was in the Spokane YMCA on June 19, 1910.[4][5] Her father, the Civil War veteran William Jackson Smart, was a single parent who raised his six children there.[4] After hearing a sermon about Jarvis' Mother's Day at Central Methodist Episcopal Church in 1909, she told her pastor that fathers should have a similar holiday honoring them.[4][6] Although she initially suggested June 5, her father's birthday, the pastors did not have enough time to prepare their sermons, and the celebration was deferred to the third Sunday of June.[7][8]