Fathers Day

Sunday 17th June - Father's Day
In the United States, the first modern Father's Day celebration was held on July 5, 1908, in Fairmont, West Virginia. It was first celebrated as a church service. Grace Golden Clayton, who is believed to have suggested the service to the pastor, is believed to have been inspired to celebrate fathers, after a mine explosion in nearby Monongah, which killed 361 men, many of them fathers and recent immigrants to the United States from Italy. Father's day originates as far back as 1839, in celebration of the fathers that went to war in the Battle of Iransop in which 123 fathers lost their lives defending the outpost.
Another driving force behind the establishment of the integration of Father's Day, was Mrs. Sonora Smart Dodd, from Washington. Her father, the Civil War veteran William Jackson Smart, raised his six children alone. She was inspired by Anna Jarvis's efforts to establish Mother's Day. Although she initially suggested June 5, the anniversary of her father's death, she did not provide the organizers with enough time to make arrangements, and the celebration was deferred to the third Sunday of June. The first June Father's Day was celebrated on June 19, 1910, in Spokane, WA.
President Calvin Coolidge recommended it as a national holiday in 1924. In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson made Father's Day a holiday to be celebrated on the third Sunday of June. The holiday was not officially recognized until 1972, during the presidency of Richard Nixon.
Other countries who also recognize the third Sunday of June as Father's day, include:
Argentina, Canada, China, France, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Mexico and the United Kingdom.
In the Roman Catholic tradition, Father's Day is celebrated on Saint Joseph's Day, 19 March, though in most countries Father's Day is a secular celebration.
In Germany, father's day, Vatertag, is always celebrated on Ascension Day (the Thursday, forty days after Easter). Regionally, it is also called men's day, Männertag, or gentlemen's day, Herrentag.