With today being Father's Day I thought you might enjoy learning a bit about how this holiday actually got its start.  Ok, some people think that Father's Day was invented as an afterthought to Mother's Day... You know, everyone felt sorry for dads since moms had their special day in May, so... along came Father's Day in June!  Not true!

The creation of a national day for Dads began back in the 1900s and owes its start to a young widower by the name of William Smart.  A civil war veteran, William raised his six children single-handedly on a rural farm in eastern Washington State.  When Sonora Louise Smart Dodd, one of Mr. Smart's children, was grown she wanted to show her appreciation for her father.  So, in 1909, she proposed a day to honor her father in June, the month of her father's birth (see, it wasn't an afterthought to Mother's Day!).

The very first Fathers' Day followed on June 19, 1910 in Spokane, Washington.  In 1924 President Calvin Coolidge showed support of this becoming a national holiday.  But it was President Lyndon Johnson who actually proclaimed it a national holiday in 1966, to be celebrated on the 3rd Sunday of June.

To all you dads out there...Happy Father's Day and have a blessed day!!!