Like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day has a modern origin. The idea came to Mrs. John Dodd as she sat listening to a Mother’s Day sermon in 1909. Her father, William Smart, had raised his children alone on his Washington farm after his wife died giving birth to their sixth child. Mrs. Dodd proposed to the Spokane Ministerial Association and the YMCA that they celebrate a “father’s day” on June 5, her father’s birthday. The idea received strong support, but the good ministers of Spokane asked that the day be changed to give them extra time to prepare sermons on the unexplored subject of fathers. The first Father’s Day was observed on June 19, 1910, in Spokane, Washington, and soon other towns had their own celebrations. In spite of widespread support, Father’s Day did not become a permanent national holiday until 1972, when President Richard Nixon signed a law declaring that it be celebrated annually on the third Sunday in June.
Daily Calendar for Sunday, June 15, 2025
Born
- Rachel Jackson (U.S. First Lady) –
- Bill Arp (writer) –
- Edvard Hagerup Grieg (composer) –
- Mario Cuomo (politician) –
- Jim Varney (actor) –
- Jim Belushi (actor) –
- Wade Boggs (baseball player) –
- Helen Hunt (actress) –
- Courteney Cox (actress) –
- Leah Remini (actress) –
- Neil Patrick Harris (actor) –
Died
- James Polk (11th U.S. president) –
- Meredith Willson (composer) –
- Ella Fitzgerald (jazz singer) –
- Hume Cronyn (actor) –
Events
- King John of England put his seal on the Magna Carta–
- George Washington is appointed commander in chief of the Continental Army by the Continental Congress–
- Arkansas admitted to the Union as the 25th state–
- Charles Goodyear received a patent for his process to strengthen rubber–
- Oregon Treaty established the 49th parallel as the U.S./British border–
- Jacob Fussell opened the first commercial ice cream factory, Baltimore, Maryland.–
- Steamboat General Slocum burst into flames on the East River killing 1,021 people–
- Princess Margaret of Connaught married Gustav, Crown Prince of Sweden–
- John Alcock and Arthur Brown completed first nonstop transatlantic flight at Clifden, County Galway, Ireland–
- Great Smoky Mountains National Park (Tennessee/North Carolina) established–
- Johnny Vander Meer of the Cincinnati Reds pitched his second consecutive no-hit, no-run professional baseball game–
- Singer Judy Garland married Vincente Minnelli–
- The Canadian government announced it would permit color television in Canada–
- Hee Haw premiered on television–
- Richard Weber and Mikhail Malakhov first to walk from Canada to North Pole and back unaided–
- Bob Barker’s final The Price is Right show after 35 years as its host–
- The Boston Bruins beat the Vancouver Canucks 4-0 in Game 7 to win the Stanley Cup–
- A 30-minute power outage occurred in East Missoula, Montana, when a bald eagle dropped its prey, a fawn, on a nearby power line–
- Aerialist Nik Wallenda crossed Niagara Falls on a high wire, becoming the first tightrope walker to cross the falls in more than a century, and the first to cross at the base of the falls.–
Weather
- Killing frost in New Jersey–
- One inch of snow fell in Pennsylvania–
- 14 inches of rain fell in Lake Creek Basin, Texas–
- 5 inches of rain fell in Cadiz, Ohio–
