Meet the woman that brought about Father's Day

History of Father's Day

Though a Father's Day service was held on July 5, 1908 in West Virginia to honor the fathers killed in the Monongah Mine Disaster, it is Sonora Smart Dodd who is credited as the founder of the official American national holiday.

Smart held her father in great esteem. While hearing a church sermon about the newly recognized Mother's Day at Central Methodist Episcopal Church, Sonora felt strongly that fatherhood needed recognition as well. She approached the Spokane Ministerial Alliance and suggested her own father's birthday, of June 5, as the day of honor for fathers. The Alliance chose the third Sunday in June instead.

The first Father's Day was celebrated June 19, 1910, in Spokane, Washington. Although observance of the holiday faded in the 1920s over time, the idea of Father's Day became popular and embraced across the nation. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson sent a telegraph to Spokane praising Father's Day services. William Jennings Bryan was another early admirer of the observance. In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the third Sunday of June as Father's Day. In 1972, President Nixon established a permanent national observance of Father's Day to be held on the 3rd Sunday of June each year.

Note this - Father's Day Celebration in different countries:

Father's Day is celebrated on different dates in different countries. In the United States and also in Nigeria, it is celebrated on the third Sunday in June, and it has gained importance in most countries over the past few years. However, in most countries, it is celebrated on the third Sunday in the month of June while some other countries adopt different dates for Father's Day Celebration.

Countries like Portugal, Spain, Croatia and Italy celebrate Father's Day on March 19. Taiwan observes it on 8th August and in Thailand it is celebrated on December 5th -- the birthday of former King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Papua New Guinea celebrate this special day in September.

Though I never experienced the love of an earthly father because I never had one but I have had God as my father, He has been an amazing Father to me and He has also sent me many earthly fathers, so fathers are worth celebrating.

To every Father, you are one in a million. I celebrate you