History of Father's Day

Father’s Day is quickly approaching, so make sure to plan something to make him feel special! This year Father’s Day is June 20^th.

In 1909 Sonora Smart Dodd, a woman from Spokane, Washington, attempted to create an official equivalent to Mother’s Day for fathers. She gathered support from local churches, the YMCA and government officials. Washington State celebrated its first statewide Father’s Day on June 9^th, 1910.

Not long after the first Father’s Day, it slowly caught on. In 1916 President Woodrow Wilson honored Father’s Day by using a telegraph signal, he pressed a button in Washington D.C. and it spread out a rolled up flag in Spokane. Later on President Calvin Coolidge encouraged state governments to honor the day.

This holiday didn’t get moving without a hitch, unfortunately. Many fathers didn’t approve of this day at first, one historian wrote, “they scoffed at the holiday’s sentimental attempts to domesticate manliness with flowers and gift-giving, or they derided the proliferation of such holidays as a commercial gimmick to sell more products – often paid for by the father himself.”

During the 1920s and 1930s a movement arose to try to get rid of Mother’s Day and Father’s Day and instead have one Parents’ Day. Although, once the Great Depression had begun, this campaign was offset. Retailers and advertisers started to brand Father’s Day as a “second Christmas”, they advertised male goods such as neckties, hats, pipes, sporting goods, and more.

Once World War II began, advertisers argued Father’s Day as a way to honor US troops and support the war effort. Finally in 1972, President Nixon had signed a proclamation making Father’s Day a federal holiday.

History.com Editors. (2009, December 30). Father's Day 2021. History.com. https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/fathers-day.