History of Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. I'm hooking my husband up with a Fudgie the Whale cake. You can probably expect to get a macaroni picture frame, rubber-glue-collage pencil cup and maybe even a soap-on-a-rope. Do they even make soaps on ropes anymore? They should.

But why all the attention? Yes, you're a great dad. That goes without saying. But where did Father's Day come from?

According to one account, the first observance of Father's Day took place in Fairmont, W. Va., on July 5, 1908. It was organized by a Grace Golden Clayton, who wanted to remember 210 fathers who had been killed in the Monongah Mining disaster several months earlier on Dec. 6, 1907 in Monongah, W. Va.

It's possible Clayton was inspired by the very first Mother's Day, which was celebrated earlier that same year, and she chose the Sunday nearest the birthday of her recently deceased father.

As it often goes with these things, the idea gained a slow-but-steady momentum until 1924, when President Calvin Coolidge declared the third Sunday in June to be Father's Day. Nearly 50 years later in 1972, President Richard Nixon established the date as a national holiday.