June is in full swing, and that means Father’s Day is on its way soon. But when is Father’s Day this year? Here’s the date and the history of how the holiday came to be.
When is Father’s Day 2026? It’s late this year
Father’s Day will fall on Sunday, June 21, 2026.
Unlike Christmas, Halloween or Valentine’s Day, Father’s Day doesn’t happen on the same date every year. It always lands on the third Sunday of June, so the calendar date changes yearly.
It can be as early as June 15 or as late as June 21 in any given year. So this year’s Father’s Day is on the latest possible date.
Did Father’s Day come before Mother’s Day?
Mother’s Day existed before Father’s Day.
Mother’s Day came to be when Anna Jarvis created the idea in May 1908; it became an official U.S. holiday in 1914, according to History. Father’s Day began around the same time but took longer to become a national holiday.
What is the story behind Father’s Day?
Father’s Day can also be traced back to 1908. The first known service celebrating the idea of Father’s Day happened in July of that year after hundreds of men died in a mining accident in Fairmont, West Virginia. The service in their honor was the first known as Father’s Day, according to Farmer’s Almanac.
A year later, Sonora Smart Dodd, a 27-year-old woman from Spokane, Washington, was inspired by Mother’s Day and came up with the idea of creating a day in June to celebrate fathers. She was inspired because her father, William Jackson Smart, a farmer and Civil War veteran, raised her and her siblings after her mother’s death.
Dodd proposed her father’s birthday, June 5, as Father’s Day, but ministers selected the third Sunday in June to allow more time after Mother’s Day to prepare their sermons. But it took decades to become a national holiday.
When was Father’s Day officially established?
The first bill to establish Father’s Day as a holiday was presented to Congress in 1913, but it didn’t pass. Later, President Calvin Coolidge signed a resolution in favor of establishing it in 1921.
Finally, in 1966, President Lyndon Johnson signed an executive order to celebrate the holiday on the third Sunday of June. It eventually became a national holiday under President Richard Nixon, in 1972.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Father’s Day needed more than 60 years to become a holiday
Reporting by Mariyam Muhammad, USA TODAY NETWORK / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Mariyam Muhammad, USA TODAY NETWORK | USA TODAY Network
