Father’s Day History, How It Began

Happy Father’s Day to all of you Dads out there from 365 Things To Do In The Florida Keys! Do you know how it all started? There’s several recorded different beginnings, here’s what most think of as the first.

The first observance of Father’s Day actually took place in Fairmont, West Virginia on July 5, 1908. It was organized by Mrs. Grace Golden Clayton, who wanted to celebrate the lives of the 210 fathers who had been lost in the Monogah Mining disaster several months earlier in Monongah, West Virginia, on December 6, 1907. It’s possible that Clayton was influenced by the first celebration of Mother’s Day that same year, just a few miles away. Clayton chose the Sunday nearest to the birthday of her recently deceased father. Wow, who knew!

It was President Richard Nixon in 1972 that designated the third Sunday in June as a national holiday officially signing it into law. And NOW you know the rest of the story!

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