Celebrating a day for fathers was the idea of Sonora Dodd, from Spokane, Washington. The idea came to her while listening to a Mother’s Day sermon in church in 1909. Sonora’s father, William Smart, was a civil war veteran who was widowed when his wife died giving birth to their sixth child. Mr. Smart raised the newborn and his five other children by himself on a rural farm in eastern Washington.

When Sonora became an adult, she realized the selflessness her father had shown in raising his children as a single parent. Sonora saw her father as a courageous, selfless, and loving man who made all the parental sacrifices. Since her father’s birthday was in June, she decided to celebrate a day for fathers in June. The first Father’s Day celebration was held in Spokane, Washington, on June 19, 1910.

Fourteen years later, in 1924, President Calvin Coolidge supported the idea of a national Father’s Day. Then in 1966, President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the third Sunday of June as Father’s Day.