Father's Day Fast Facts

Here is a look at Father's Day, celebrated the third Sunday in June.

Facts: June 17, 2018 - Father's Day

According to Hallmark, Father's Day is the fourth-largest card-sending occasion with 72 million cards given every year.

Fifty percent of all Father's Day cards are purchased for fathers. Almost 20 percent of Father's Day cards are given to husbands.

The US Census Bureau estimates there were 70.1 million fathers in the United States in 2008.

Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, Washington, is credited with starting Father's Day after hearing a sermon on Mother's Day.

Dodd wanted to honor her father William Jackson Smart, a widower who raised six children on his own.

Timeline: 1910 - Spokane celebrates the first Father's Day on June 19.

1924 - President Calvin Coolidge publicly supports plans for a national Father's Day.

1966 - President Lyndon Johnson signs a proclamation calling for Father's Day to be celebrated on the third Sunday of June.

1972 - President Richard Nixon signs into law a permanent recognition of Father's Day.