Father's Day Shortchanged? Humble History, Fewer Gifts
How Father's Day's began, why Dad doesn't mind fewer gifts, and more.
(Father's Day Pictures: All-Star Animal Dads.)
First celebrated 102 years ago, Father's Day was, in a way, born of Mother's Day.
After a Mother's Day sermon in 1909, Spokane, Washington, resident Sonora Smart-Dodd—one of six children being raised by a single dad—wanted to honor her father too.
Smart-Dodd encouraged local churches to institute the first Father's Day observance the following year, and the idea caught on. (Learn more about the beginnings of Father's Day.)
It wasn't till 1972, though, that Father's Day was officially made a U.S. holiday, when President Richard Nixon helped set aside the third Sunday in June for dads.
Forty years later, dads are more likely to be satisfied with their holiday
