Father's Day Facts and Figures You May Not Know

When it all began

Sonora Dodd, of Washington, first had the idea of a "father's day." She thought of the idea for Father's Day while listening to a Mother's Day sermon in 1909. Dodd's father was born in June, so she chose to hold the first Father's Day celebration in Spokane, Wash. on the 19th of June, 1910.

Presidential support

President Calvin Coolidge, in 1924, supported the idea of a national Father's Day. Then in 1966 President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the 3rd Sunday of June as Father's Day. President Richard Nixon signed the law which finally made it permanent in 1972.

He said it

"If the new American father feels bewildered and even defeated, let him take comfort from the fact that whatever he does in any fathering situation has a fifty percent chance of being right." — Bill Cosby

Gifts, gifts, gifts

Neckties are an old standby and lead the list of Father’s Day gifts. A good place to buy dad a tie or a shirt might be one of 8,111 men’s clothing stores around the country. Other items high on the list of Father’s Day gifts include those items you may find in dad’s toolbox such as hammers, wrenches and screwdrivers. You could buy some of these items for dad at one of the nation’s 16,010 hardware stores or 7,009 home centers. Other traditional gifts for dad such as fishing rods and golf clubs make for a happy Father's Day for the more than 22,000 sporting goods stores in America.

Breaking down the numbers

70.1 million — Estimated number of fathers across the nation.
Source: Unpublished data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation

24.7 million — Number of fathers who were part of married-couple families with children younger than 18 in 2011.

1.7 million — Number of single fathers in 2011; 15 percent of single parents were men.