Today in History: Father's Day

Father’s Day was originally celebrated in Europe during the Middle Ages on March 19 (St. Joseph’s Feast Day). In the U.S. the first celebration of Father’s Day outside of Catholic circles was on July 5, 1908. It was made in honor of 250 fathers who had died the preceding year in the Monongah Mining Disaster. It was not celebrated again for many years. Other efforts to start the holiday (1910, 1911, 1912, 1915) either failed or had only short term success. Congress persistently refused to declare Father’s Day a holiday out of fear that the celebration would become commercialized. In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson officially established Father’s Day on the third Sunday of June by proclamation, and six years later, Congress finally agreed and passed legislation (signed by Richard Nixon) to make the holiday permanent.