The origins of Father's Day
In the USA in 1966, President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation setting aside the third Sunday of June each year as Father's Day.
It is likely that the origins of this celebration can be credited to Mrs John B Dodd of Washington State in the USA, who first suggested the idea of Father's Day in 1909.
Mrs Dodd's father, the Civil War veteran William Smart, had been widowed when his wife died giving birth to their sixth child. Mr Smart raised the newborn baby along with his five other children by himself. Mrs Dodd decided that it would be a good idea to celebrate his selflessness - and the idea of Father's Day was born.