Origin of Father's Day

At first, Father's Day started out as a rememberance mass for 362 men who died in the Fairmont Coal Company mines explosions of December 1907. The commeneration at a West Virginia church was only held as a one time event on 5 July 1908 but it honored fathers.
Inspired by Ann Jarvis' campaign for the creation of Mother's Day, Spokane, Washington resident Sonora Smart Dodd who was raised by a widower (a man who had been widowed after the death of his wife) decided to go and get support for a day similar to Mother's Day but for paternal figures. Her successful campaign with support from local churches, shopkeepers, government officials and the YMCA led to Washington State celebrating the first Father's Day in the United States on 19 June 1910. Slowly and over time, other US states followed with the Second World War promoting of the troops out on the field seeing Father's Day become a national institution with President Lyndon B Johnson signing a proclamation that declared the third sunday in June as Father's Day in 1966 followed by Richard Nixon in 1972 who made it a national holiday.

In the UK, Father's Day came about in the Middle Ages when it was originally marked on St Joseph's Day on 19 March. St Joseph was the adoptive father of the lord Jesus Christ and the husband of the Virgin Mary. Joseph is the patron saint of workers, families, expectant/ pregnant mothers, travellers, immigrants and fathers which made his feast day appropiate to celebrate fathers on. In modern times however, the UK has followed the US in celebrating Father's Day on the third Sunday in June.