I was surprised to learn that Father’s Day in the US was not a permanent national holiday until 1972, when President Richard Nixon signed it into law in 1972. I (my family) have always celebrated Father’s Day and gave my dad, ties, hankies or scarves every year. Since my dad had a clean handkerchief every day I assume that these were appreciated and used often.

The “mother” of Father’s Day was Sonora Smart Dodd, according to historians. The daughter of a widowed Civil War veteran who had raised her on his own, Dodd came up with the idea when listening to a Mother’s Day sermon in 1909. She held her own special tribute for her father on June 19, 1910, in Spokane, Washington. She began a campaign for an official celebration soon after.

President Calvin Coolidge expressed support for the holiday in 1919, and in 1926 a National Father’s Day Committee was formed in New York City to join the campaign. In 1966 President Lyndon Johnson signed a proclamation designating the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day, however, it wasn’t until 1972 that President Richard Nixon officially recognized it as a national holiday.

As with Mother’s Day, the official flower of Father’s Day is the rose: red for fathers who are still living, and white for fathers who have passed away.

See cute article about sit-com dads: A history of TV’s most famous dads