The first observance of Father’s Day actually took place in Fairmont West Virginia
on July 5, 1908. It was organized by Mrs. Grace Golden Clayton, who wanted to celebrate the lives of the 210 fathers who had been lost in the Monongah Mining
disaster several months earlier in Monongah West Virginia, on December 6,1907.It
was never officially registered as a holiday.
All the credit for Father’s Day went to Sonora Dodd of Spokane, Washington who
conducted her celebration in 1910. A bill to accord national recognition of the
holiday was introduced in Congress in 1913. In 1916,President Woodrow Wilson
went to Spokane to speak in a Father’s Day celebration and wanted to make it
official, but Congress resisted, fearing that it would become commercialized.
US President Calvin Coolidge recommended in 1924 that the day be observed by
the nation, but stopped short of issuing a national proclamation. In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers, designating the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day. Six years later, the day was
made a permanent national holiday when President Nixon signed it into law in 1972.
Sonora Dodd, now known as the Mother of Father’s Day.
