The first national Mother’s Day was celebrated in 1914. Dads had to wait 58 years. In 1909, Sonora Smart Dodd, the daughter of a widower who raised six kids, began to push for a day to honor fathers after she heard a sermon about Anna Jarvis’ proposed Mother’s Day. This paid off as Spokane, Washington celebrated fathers on June 19, 1910. Six years later, Pres. Wilson used a telegraph signal to unfurl a flag in Spokane. In 1924, Pres. Coolidge pushed the states to inaugurate their own father’s days. However, most fathers found the idea of getting flowers and gifts to be emasculating. Plus, there was the sneaking suspicion that it would be one more holiday that took money out of their wallets. In the 1920’s and 1930’s, there was a movement to combine mothers and fathers into a Parent’s Day. That never caught on, but the Great Depression gave a boost to Father’s Day as retailers were looking for a way to make money. The public was encouraged to honor dear old dad with ties, hats, socks, pipes, golf clubs, etc. In WWII, it was pushed as a way to honor the troops and support the war effort. By the 1960’s, most states celebrated the holiday. In 1966, Pres. Johnson issued a proclamation honoring fathers and designated the third Sunday in June as the time to do it in the future. Finally, in 1972 Pres. Nixon made it a federal holiday.
https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/fathers-day
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father%27s_Day_(United_States)
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