Father's Day

love and respect both parents on the same day rallied every year in New York City’s Central Park. Their efforts to combine and decommercialize both holidays were paradoxically derailed by The Great Depression, with efforts redoubled by struggling retailers and advertisers to promote Father’s Day as a second Christmas for men.

Neckties, pipes and tobacco, hats, socks, golf clubs and other sporting goods were widely promoted, along with greeting cards.

World War II played an important role in the escalation of Father’s Day, with advertisers using it as an opportunity for families to honor American troops. And while Father’s Day was not yet a federal holiday when the war ended in 1945, it was most certainly a national institution.

Presidents Step In Over the years, U.S. Presidents made attempts to shed light on the day and to solidify a Father’s Day observance.

President Woodrow Wilson in 1916 unfurled a flag in Spokane via telegraph signals from Washington, D.C., and President Calvin Coolidge urged the observance of Father’s Day by state governments in 1924. In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson signed a proclamation calling for Father’s Day to be celebrated on the third Sunday in June.

In 1972, President Richard Nixon signed a proclamation – he did so in the middle of a hard-fought presidential re-election campaign – that made Father’s Day a federal holiday.