United States

Photograph of a father playing in the sand with his son is courtesy of Photos.com

In June of 1910, Sonora Louise Smart Dodd petitions to make a day to honor fathers. The Spokane Ministerial Alliance made scheduled the first Father's Day event for June 19, 1910.

The Smart family moved to Washington state in 1889. William Jackson Smart had been widowed in 1898 and left to raise six children alone, according to fathersdaybirthplace.com.

While listening to a Mother's Day sermon in 1909 Dodd, who was a new mother, thought it would be good to recognize her father for raising her and her siblings alone.

Dodd brings a petition to a meeting of the Spokane Ministerial Alliance and suggests they honor father's during sermons on June 5 (her father's birthday). The Ministerial Alliance schedules the sermons for June 19 to give them time to prepare.

On June 19, 1910 the Father's Day sermons are given at local Spokane churches. The mayor of Spokane and the governor of Washington state issue Father's Day proclamations and make it official.

At the Old Centenary Presbyterian Church, the church attend by Dodd, the women give a red rose to all the fathers at the service. Baskets of white and red roses are circulated among the parishioners. They are invited to wear a rose to honor their fathers. The white rose was to represent the fathers who were deceased and the red roses would represent the fathers who were living.

The story of the Father's Day sermons in Washington state was published in seven national newspapers.

President Woodrow Wilson officially opens Father's Day services from his office in Washington, D.C. in 1916.

Sonora Louise Smart Dodd is recognized as the founder of Father's Day at the 1940 New York World's Fair.

As fathers across the U.S. celebrate with their families Sunday there will be sunny skies for some and rain for others.

"Along the East Coast, it will be nice with high pressure in control. There will be chance for a few storms in the Florida Keys and along the central Gulf Coast," said AccuWeather Meteorologist Brian Edwards.

"A cold front will be tracking through the Great Lakes region and the Ohio Valley bringing storms, some may potentially be strong."

"The cold front will be trailing back into the central Plains bringing storms to Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Okla. as well as St. Louis and Springfield, Mo.," Edwards said.

"It will be mostly dry Sunday in the Northwest but there will be a few showers in the northern Rockies and western Washington State."