In the USA, Father's Day is celebrated on the third Sunday in June. The idea came from Sonora Dodd in 1909. Dodd wanted to honor her father, a war veteran who raised six children after his wife died in childbirth. The first Father's Day was proclaimed in Dodd's hometown of Spokane, Washington in 1910. In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson made the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers, and in 1972, President Richard M. Nixon signed it into permanent law.
According to the US Census Bureau:
* 30.2 million fathers live with children under 18 years old.
* 85% live with their biological children only, 11% live with stepchildren, 4% with adopted children, and less than 1% live with foster children.
* Among single parents living with their children, 16% are fathers.
* 8% of single fathers are raising three or more children under 18 years old.
* 678,000 single fathers are due child support from their children's mothers.
* 53% of children under 6 years old eat breakfast with their fathers.
* 71% of children under 6 eat dinner with their fathers.
* 66% of children under 6 are praised three or more times per day by their fathers.
For ideas for gifts that you can make for the honored men in your life, click here.
*Census results are from 2006, and can be found at
