Which U.S. president issued the 1966 proclamation that officially recognized Father’s Day?

U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the 1966 proclamation that officially recognized Father’s Day.

On May 1, 1966, Johnson signed Presidential Proclamation 3730, calling on Americans to observe the third Sunday of June as Father’s Day. The proclamation encouraged government officials, churches, schools, and citizens to honor fathers and father figures.

Johnson’s action gave the observance formal national recognition, but it did not make Father’s Day a permanent federal holiday. That happened later, when President Richard Nixon signed the law establishing it as a recurring national observance in 1972.

A common mix-up is confusing Johnson’s 1966 proclamation with Nixon’s 1972 legislation. Sonora Smart Dodd had promoted the idea decades earlier, and the first widely recognized celebration took place in Spokane, Washington, in 1910.