According to History.com, the first Father’s Day was observed on July 5, 1908, when a West Virginia church held a service in memory of 362 men who had died in December 1907 in explosions at the Fairmont Coal Company mines in Monongah.
In 1910, Sonora Smart Dodd in Spokane, Washington began canvassing her community for support for the annual observance of Father’s Day. She was successful and in 1910, Washington state celebrated the first statewide observance of Father’s Day in the United States.
The holiday initially failed to achieve as much popularity as Mother’s Day, but was formally recognized in 1966, when President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers, designating the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day.
But the day did not become official until six years later when President Richard Nixon signed a declaration stating every third Sunday in the month of June be observed as Father’s Day every year. The day became gradually more accepted after that year and has grown more popular each year.
Happy Father’s Day from all of us at St. Landry Now.
