The first observance of a "Father’s Day" was held on July 5, 1908, in Fairmont,
West Virginia, in the Williams Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church South, now
known as Central United Methodist Church.
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. President Calvin Coolidge recommended in 1924
that the day be observed by the nation, but stopped short of issuing a national proclamation.
Two earlier attempts to formally recognize the holiday had been defeated by
Congress. In 1957, Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith wrote a proposal
accusing Congress of ignoring fathers for 40 years while honoring mothers,
thus "[singling] out just one of our two parents".
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 Richard
Nixon signed it into law in 1972 (below).
Richard M. Nixon
