We all love to recognize, honor or remember our dad on Father's Day, but have you ever wondered how this federal holiday came to be?

Well, it was sort of an equal rights response to Mother’s Day, which was declared a national holiday in 1914.  Thanks in large part to retailers, who saw great potential for profit, Mother’s Day caught on right away.   

Fathers day...not so much. The inspiration for Father’s Day started in the early 1900's.  It began in honor of a Civil War Veteran who was the single dad of 14 kids. His daughter thought her dad should be honored on a special day, just like moms.  However,  as one historian writes,  some men “scoffed at the holiday’s sentimental attempts to domesticate manliness with flowers and gift-giving, or they derided such holidays as a commercial gimmick to sell more products–often paid for by the father himself.”  It was not until 1972– fifty-eight years after President Woodrow Wilson made Mother’s Day official–that the day honoring fathers became a nationwide holiday in the US.

Here is the complete history of Father's Day.

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