5 Obscure Facts About the Declaration of Independence

From a full article by Alex at Neatorama:

- There was no "United States" in the Declaration of Independence
- Jefferson was upset that slavery was edited out
- The youngest signer was 26-year-old Edward Rutledge and the oldest was 70-year-old Benjamin Franklin.
- Richard Stockton was the only one that ever recanted his oath (after he was captured by the British)
- Bargain hunter bought an old copy of the Declaration of Independence at a flea market for $4, and sold it for more than $8 millions.

Unusual Traditions for Celebrating the New Year

Romania
In Romania, some believe that tossing coins into the river, brings good luck. Some even use December 31st to predict the coming year’s weather by systematically peeling, salting and reading the skins of 12 onions.

Spain
In Spain, people eat twelve grapes as the clock strikes 1; one for each month of the year. The tradition, believed to bring good luck, can be traced back to the year 1909 when there was a bountiful harvest in the town of Alicante and Alfonso XIII, the Spanish King, gave grapes to his peeps on New Year’s Eve.

Puerto Rico
In Puerto Rico, they blast car horns and boat whistles, ring church bells and beat drums to make enough noise to drive away evil spirits and demons. In some parts of the country they also throw pails of water from their windows at midnight to chase away the evil eye.


Belgium
In Belgium, farmers wish their livestock happy new year to ensure 365 days of good health and well-being. Belgians are also known to exchange gifts on New Year’s, which they celebrate as Sint Sylvester Vooranvond (St. Sylvester Eve).

France
The French mix health and wealth and usher in the new beginning with a stack of pancakes. Another unique custom in France is kissing under the mistletoe as the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve, sorta like Christmas traditions elsewhere.

Armenia
In Armenia, a special kind of bread is baked with good luck and best wishes stamped on it. Traditionally, people conduct a ‘Ritual of Fire’ on New Year’s Eve where all troubles pertaining to the old year are symbolically burnt.

Read the full article by David K. Israel and found on MentalFloss.

Why is 13 unlucky?

Here are a few possible reason:

- There were 13 people at the Last Supper. It’s said that Judas Iscariot – the one who betrayed Jesus – was the 13th man to take his place at the table.

- There’s a Norse legend that has 12 gods sitting down to a banquet when the 13th (uninvited) god, Loki, showed up. Loki killed one of the other gods, which led to events that eventually resulted in the death of many gods, a slew of natural disasters, and the eradication of everything on earth save for two human survivors.

- Traditionally there were 13 steps leading up the gallows.

- There is also a legend that a hangman’s noose traditionally contained 13 turns, but it’s actually more like eight.

- There was a mass arrest and execution of the Knights Templar on Friday, October 13, 1307.

- It was once believed that a coven was made up of exactly 13 members.

- In the late 1800s there was a group known a The Thirteen Club. Their purpose was to debunk the legend that 13 people at a table would result in the death of one of them within a year. They met on the 13th of the month and had dinner 13 people to a table. Members of the 13 Club included five U.S. presidents – Benjamin Harrison, Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt and Chester A. Arthur. Two of these presidents were shot, one fatally.

Clown Week?!

There are several versions of who thought up National Clown week and who got Congress to pass the Proclamation. Here are the two versions of what happened.


Version I: Frank "Kelly the Clown" Kelly

In 1966 the first International Clown Week chairman, Frank "Kelly the Clown" Kelly, was appointed by Ray Bickford, president of Clown Club of America. In 1967 Clown Club of America members were urged to write to their congressmen and senators requesting a presidential proclamation naming August 1-7 as National Clown Week. In 1969 a resolution was introduced. After clowns met with Senator John McClellan of Arkansas who was chairman of the Senate subcommittee on Observances and Holidays success was finally achieved.


Version II. BILL "BOOM-BOOM" BAILY

Bill was an original member of Clowns of America when it was founded in 1967 and held membership number 81. He was named the U.S. Chairman of National Clown Week. Because each year a chairman had to be chosen in each state to ask their governor to issue a proclamation honoring National Clown Week, Bill pushed for National Clown Week publicity. He convinced Congressman Garmatz of Maryland and Congressman Myers of Indiana to introduce a joint resolution in Congress establishing National Clown Week as an annual event. He lobbied congress and organized a visit by clowns to the senate building in Washington, D.C. The joint resolution was signed into law by President Nixon on August 2, 1971.


For more, see the homepage for International Clown Week.

But Arbor Day is in the Fall...

The first Arbor Day took place on April 10, 1872 in Nebraska. It was the brainchild of Julius Sterling Morton (1832-1902), a Nebraska journalist and politician originally from Michigan.

Today all 50 states celebrate Arbor Day although the dates may vary in keeping with the local climate. At the federal level, in 1970, President Richard Nixon proclaimed the last Friday in April as National Arbor Day. Arbor Day is also now celebrated in other countries including Australia.

To see a list of when all 50 states celebrate the day, visit Arbor-Day.net

For example, Florida celebrates on the third Friday in January and Hawaii on the first Friday in November.

5 Father Facts

1. Halsey Taylor invented the drinking fountain as a tribute to his father, who died of typhoid fever after drinking from a contaminated public water supply in 1896.

2. George Washington, the celebrated “Father of Our Country,” had no children of his own. Researchers believe a childhood illnesses may have rendered him sterile.

3. A.A. Milne created Winnie the Pooh for his son, Christopher Robin. Pooh was based on the boy's teddy bear named Edward which Christopher had received as a gift for his first birthday, and on their father/son visits to the London Zoo, where the bear named Winnie was Christopher’s favorite.

4. The voice of Papa Smurf, Don Messick, also provided the voice of Scooby-Doo, Ranger Smith on Yogi Bear, and Astro and RUDI on The Jetsons.

5. The only father-daughter collaboration to hit the top spot on the Billboard pop music chart was the 1967 hit single “Something Stupid” by Frank & Nancy Sinatra.

From Mental Floss

It's My Earth Day Too, Yeah Yeah

Earth Day - celebrated April 22 - is a day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the environment. It was founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teaching event.

The United Nations celebrates an Earth Day each year on the March equinox, which is often March 20, a tradition which was founded by peace activist John McConnell in 1969.

Senator Nelson chose the date of April 22nd in order to maximize participation on college campuses for what he conceived as an environmental "teach-in". This date did not fall during exams or spring breaks and did not conflict with religious holidays such as Easter or Passover. More students were likely to be in class, and there would be less competition with other events mid-week, so he chose Wednesday, April 22.

When asked whether he had purposely chosen Lenin's 100th birthday, Nelson explained that as a year had only 365 days a year and more than 3.7 billion people in the world, every day was the birthday of ten million living people. “On any given day, a lot of both good and bad people were born,” he said. “A person many consider the world’s first environmentalist, Saint Francis of Assisi, was born on April 22.“[ "The Man from Clear Lake: Earth Day Founder Gaylord Nelson", University of Wisconsin Press]

April 21 was the birthday of John Muir, who founded the Sierra Club.

April 22 is also the birthday of Julius Sterling Morton, the founder of Arbor Day which was started in 1872. Arbor Day became a legal holiday in Nebraska in 1885, to be permanently observed on April 22.

Learn more on Wikipedia or Take Action at Earth Day Network.

An Easter Related Questions

Why are eggs and bunnies associated with Easter?

Religious implications aside, Easter is essentially a celebration of springtime – a time in which big rabbits make a whole lot of little rabbits and birds lay a whole lot of eggs, thus symbolizing rebirth.

The more complicated question is, why does the Easter bunny lay eggs? This strange story originated as an Anglo-Saxon legend in which Eostre (the goddess of spring) turned a frozen bird into a hare to help it survive the harsh winter. The story was passed down through generations, and by the 1700s, Dutch settlers in America were telling their children that if they were good, the Easter bunny would come to their house and lay a beautiful nest of colorful eggs. No one is sure why, but these kids really wanted colored eggs, so they went to great lengths to lure the magical bunny into their hones to lay her nest. Eventually, this led to our current celebration Easter.

Thanks to MentalFloss. More Easter related trivia to come.

Happy St Patty's Day!!!

Enjoy it!!

New Year's Related Tid Bits

* "Auld Lang Syne" was at least partially written by Robert Burns in the 1700's and first published in 1796 after his death. Early variations of the song were sung prior to 1700 and inspired Burns to produce the modern rendition.

* An old Scotch tune, "Auld Lang Syne" literally means "old long ago," or simply, "the good old days."

* Celebrating the new year is the oldest of all holidays and was first observed in ancient Babylon about 4,000 years ago.

* Originally, the new year was celebrated after the first day of spring. The Romans continued to observe the new year in late March, but since their calendar was continually tampered by emperors the senate voted in 153 BC to declare January 1 as the beginning of the new year.

* Using a baby to signify the new year began in Greece around 600 BC. At the time, you could celebrate Dionysus, the god of wine, by parading a baby in a basket to represent the annual rebirth of the god.

* The early Babylonian's most popular resolution was to return borrowed farm equipment.

* In 1904 the first rooftop celebration atop One Times Square, complete with a fireworks display, took place produced by The New York Times to inaugurate its new headquarters.

* The first Ball Lowering celebration at One Times Square was held on December 31, 1907 and is now seen via satellite by more than one billion people worldwide each year.

* The original New Year's Eve Ball weighed 700 pounds and was 5 feet in diameter. It was made of iron and wood and was decorated with 100 25-watt light bulbs.

* In many parts of U.S. it is tradition to eat black-eyed peas on New Year's which have been considered good luck in many cultures. Cabbage is another "good luck" vegetable as it is a sign of prosperity and paper currency.

Merry Christmas! Have Some Trivia!!!

* The Nutcracker is a fairy tale-ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, composed in 1891–92.

* The ballet was based on the story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" written in 1816 by E. T. A. Hoffmann.

* Tchaikovsky was less happy with The Nutcracker than with The Sleeping Beauty, finished beforehand.

* The of The Nutcracker story has been published in many book versions including colorful children-friendly versions. The plot revolves around a German girl named Clara (sometimes called Marie).

* The work opens with a brief "Miniature Overture" which sets the fairy mood by using upper registers of the orchestra exclusively. The curtain opens to reveal a Christmas Eve at Clara's house. She is given a nutcrakcer by her godfather, Herr Drosselmeyer, which is promptly broken by her brother Fritz.

* After the party ends, Herr Drosselmeyer repairs the nutcracker. Clara then awakens and, at the stroke of midnight, Clara becomes entangled in a fight to help the nutcracker - now alive - defeat the Mouse King.

* In the original story by E.T.A. Hoffmann, the Prince is actually Drosselmeyer's nephew, who had been turned into a Nutcracker by the Mouse King. All of the events following the Christmas party have been arranged by Drosselmeyer in order to break the spell.

* Clara and the Prince travel to a world where dancing Snowflakes greet them and fairies and queens dance, welcoming Clara and the Prince into their world. The score conveys the wondrous images by introducing a wordless children's chorus. The curtain falls on Act I.

For more on all things Nutcracker, see wiki.

Beaker Wishes You a Merry Christmas

Christmas Covers

a. Last Christmas (Wham!) – Jimmy Eat World
b. All I Want For Christmas (Mariah Carey) – Heike Has the Giggles
c. Christmas Don't Be Late (Alvin and the Chipmunks) – Rosie Thomas
d. Merry Christmas, I Don't Wanna Fight (The Ramones) – Absosi Seksu
e. White Christmas (Bing Crosby/Irving Berlin) – Louis Armstrong
f. Blue Christmas (Ernest Tubb/Elvis) – Johnny Cash
g. Fairytale of New York (The Pogues) –
h. 2000 Miles (The Pretenders) – Coldplay
i. River (Travis) – Joni Mitchell

Strangest Christmas Tradition Ever

The “Caganer”
In Catalonia, Spain as well as in the rest of the country (and throughout much of Italy), traditional Christmas decorations include a large model of the city of Bethlehem. This are similar to Nativity scenes popular throughout the English-speaking world but show the entire city rather than just the manger scene. These scenes include the caganer who is often tucked away in a corner of the model, typically nowhere near the manger scene. The reason for his position relates to the direct translation of "caganer" which is Catalan for "pooper". Yes and that is exactly the little statue is doing; defecating.


Suggested reasons for this traditional excreting man being included in the religious scene include:
* Tradition
* Humor
* The game of "Finding the Caganer"
* The Caganer, by creating feces, is fertilizing the Earth
* The Caganer represents the equality of all people. After all, regardless of status, race, or gender, everyone defecates.
* The idea that God will manifest when s/he is ready, whether human beings are ready or not.
* The caganer reinforces that Jesus is God in human form. And that includes all the bodily functions.

Of course, you can now purchase Caganers that look like the rich and famous. See Caganer.com

You're a Mean One, Mr Grinch

* How the Grinch Stole Christmas! was first published in 1957 and was adapted into as a short animated film in 1966.

* Frankenstein’s Monster himself, Boris Karloff, provided the voice of the Grinch and the narration for the movie.

* Dr. Seuss was initially uninterested in animating this or any of his books, but Chuck Jones managed to persuade him.

* The two voice parts sound a bit different because the sound people went back to the Grinch’s parts and removed all of the high tones in Karloff’s voice.
* Tony the Tiger (Thurl Ravenscroft) is the voice behind “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.” He received no credit on screen causing Dr. Seuss to write to newspapers all over America to let them know exactly who had sung the song.

* Dr. Seuss wrote the lyrics to all the songs.

* The lyrics to the song "Fahoo Forays" were made to imitate classical Latin. After the special aired, the studio received letters asking for a translation from people who believed them to be real Latin.

* The Grinch's green color was decided by director Chuck Jones' experiences renting cars in the Washington-Baltimore area which he claimed always turned out to be the exact shade.

* After the Grinch's "change of heart", his pupils change from red to blue.

For all things movie, see IMDB

Turkey Day Trivia

-The first recorded Thanksgiving ceremony in North America took place on September 8, 1565 when 600 Spanish settlers landed at what is now St. Augustine, Florida, and immediately held a Mass of Thanksgiving for their safe delivery to the New World. After mass came much feasting and celebration.

-On December 4, 1619, 38 English settlers arrived at Berkeley Hundred. The group's charter required their day of arrival be observed yearly as a "day of thanksgiving" to God. On that first day, Captain John Woodleaf held the service of thanksgiving. This site became Berkeley Plantation and is still host to an annual Thanksgiving event. President George W. Bush gave his official Thanksgiving address in 2007 at Berkeley.

-Squanto, a Patuxet Native American who resided with the Wampanoag tribe, taught the Pilgrims how to catch eel and grow corn and served as an interpreter for them. The Pilgrims set apart a day to celebrate at Plymouth immediately after their first harvest, in 1621. At the time, this was not regarded as a Thanksgiving observance but a harvest festival.
-The Pilgrims did not hold a true Thanksgiving until 1623, following a drought, prayers for rain, and a subsequent rain shower. Irregular Thanksgivings continued after favorable events and days of fasting after unfavorable ones. In the Plymouth tradition, a thanksgiving day was a church observance, rather than a feast day.

-The Massachusetts Bay Colony which consisted mainly of Puritan Christians celebrated Thanksgiving for the first time in 1630, and frequently thereafter until about 1680, when it became an annual festival in that colony.

-During the American Revolutionary War the Continental Congress appointed one or more thanksgiving days each year. The First National Proclamation of Thanksgiving was given by the Continental Congress in 1777. George Washington proclaimed a Thanksgiving in December 1777 as a victory celebration honoring the defeat of the British at Saratoga.

-A Thanksgiving Day was annually appointed by the governor of New York from 1817. In some of the Southern states there was opposition to the observance on the grounds that it was a relic of Puritanic bigotry. Still, by 1858 governors of 25 states and two territories had appointed a day of thanksgiving.

-In the middle of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln, prompted by a series of editorials written by Sarah Josepha Hale, proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated on the final Thursday in November 1863. Ever since, Thanksgiving has been observed annually in the United States and Lincoln's successors followed his example of annually declaring the final Thursday in November to be Thanksgiving.

-1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt broke with this tradition. November had five Thursdays that year, and Roosevelt declared the fourth Thursday as Thanksgiving rather than the fifth one. In 1940, in which November had four Thursdays, he declared the third one as Thanksgiving, suggesting his plan was to establish the holiday on the next-to-last Thursday in the month instead of the last one. With the country still in the midst of The Great Depression, Roosevelt thought an earlier Thanksgiving would give merchants a longer period to sell goods before Christmas. At the time, advertising goods for Christmas before Thanksgiving was considered inappropriate.

-The U.S. Congress in 1941 split the difference and passed a bill requiring that Thanksgiving be observed annually on the fourth Thursday of November, which was sometimes the last Thursday and sometimes (less frequently) the next to last.

-Since at least 1947 the National Turkey Federation has presented the President of the United States with one live turkey and two dressed turkeys, in a ceremony known as the National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation. The live turkey is pardoned and lives out the rest of its days on a peaceful farm. While it is commonly held that this pardoning tradition began with Harry Truman in 1947, the Truman Library has been unable to find any evidence for this. The earliest on record is with George H. W. Bush in 1989.

To read Thanksgiving Proclamations in full, please see Wikipedia

Presidential Trivia

Presidents Who Were Related to Each Other
* John Adams was the father of John Quincy Adams.
* James Madison and Zachary Taylor were second cousins.
* William Henry Harrison was the grandfather of Benjamin Harrison.
* Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a fifth cousin of Theodore Roosevelt.
* George W. Bush is the son of George Bush.

Before I Became President...
* Twenty-six Presidents were lawyers before becoming president.
* Twelve presidents were generals: Washington, Jackson, W. Harrison, Taylor, Pierce, A. Johnson, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, B. Harrison, and Eisenhower.

George Washington's salary as president was $25,000. Bush's salary is $400,000.

George W. Bush is our 43rd president, but there actually have only been 42 presidents: Cleveland was elected for two nonconsecutive terms and is counted twice, as our 22nd and 24th president.

Eight Presidents were born British subjects:
* Washington
* J. Adams
* Jefferson
* Madison
* Monroe
* J. Q. Adams
* Jackson
* W. Harrison

Nine Presidents never attended college:
* Washington
* Jackson
* Van Buren
* Taylor
* Fillmore
* Lincoln
* A. Johnson
* Cleveland
* Truman

The college that has the most presidents as alumni (six in total) is Harvard. Yale is a close second, with five presidents as alumni.

18 Presidents Never Served in Congress:
* Washington
* J. Adams
* Jefferson
* Taylor
* Grant
* Arthur
* Cleveland
* T. Roosevelt
* Taft
* Wilson
* Coolidge
* Hoover
* F. Roosevelt
* Eisenhower
* Carter
* Reagan
* Clinton
* G. W. Bush.

The most common religious affiliation among presidents has been Episcopalian, followed by Presbyterian.

The ancestry of all 43 presidents is limited to the following seven heritages, or some combination thereof: Dutch, English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Swiss, or German.

The oldest elected president was Reagan (age 69); the youngest was Kennedy (age 43). Theodore Roosevelt, however, was the youngest man to become president—he was 42 when he succeeded McKinley, who had been assassinated.

The tallest president was Lincoln at 6'4"; at 5'4", Madison was the shortest.

Fourteen Presidents served as Vice Presidents
* J. Adams
* Jefferson
* Van Buren
* Tyler
* Fillmore
* A. Johnson
* Arthur
* T. Roosevelt
* Coolidge
* Truman
* Nixon
* L. Johnson
* Ford
* George H.W. Bush.

Four presidential candidates won the popular vote but lost the presidency:
Andrew Jackson won the popular vote but lost the election to John Quincy Adams (1824); Samuel J. Tilden won the popular vote but lost the election to Rutherford B. Hayes (1876); Grover Cleveland won the popular vote but lost the election to Benjamin Harrison (1888); Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the election to George W. Bush (2000).

James Buchanan was the only president never to marry. Five presidents remarried after the death of their first wives—two of whom, Tyler and Wilson, remarried while in the White House. Reagan was the only divorced president. Six presidents had no children. Tyler—father of fifteen—had the most.

Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, and Kennedy were assassinated in office.
Assassination attempts were made on the lives of Jackson, T. Roosevelt, F. Roosevelt, Truman, Ford, and Reagan.

Eight Presidents died in office: W. Harrison (after having served only one month), Taylor, Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Harding, F. Roosevelt, and Kennedy.

Presidents Adams, Jefferson, and Monroe all died on the 4th of July; Coolidge was born on that day.

Kennedy and Taft are the only presidents buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Halloween Trivia: The Originial Frankenstein Film

* Released in November of 1931

* Bela Lugosi was offered the role of the monster, but refused on the grounds that his character would not speak (he eventually played the role in 1943).

* After bringing the monster to life, Dr. Frankenstein uttered the famous line, "Now I know what it's like to BE God!" When the movie was re-released in the late '30s, censors demanded it be removed on the grounds that it was blasphemy. A loud clap of thunder was substituted on the soundtrack.

* Boris Karloff (who play the monster) offered to remove his partial bridgework as part of the monster make-up process to create the sunken cheek look.

* The machines used to show sparks flying over the monster were later used in the comedy Young Frankenstein (1974).

* The method of animating the creature is never discussed in Mary Shelley's novel; Dr. Frankenstein refuses to divulge how he did it so no one can re-create his actions. However, the use of lightning to resurrect the monster has become the accepted methodology and appears in virtually every Frankenstein movie since.

* At one point the movie was to have included a line of dialogue giving the Monster the name Adam. This was cut when audiences began referring to the monster by the name Frankenstein.

* The Monster in this film does not physically resemble Mary Shelley's character. It was make-up artist Jack P. Pierce who came up with his characteristic movie look. He did keep one detail from the book: the monster was to have yellow skin.

* What are commonly called bolts on the neck of the monster are in reality electrodes.

* The movie's line "It's alive! It's alive!" was voted as the #49 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100).

* Director James Whale happened to spot Boris Karloff in the Universal commissary and offered him a screen-test. Karloff later joked that he was offended by being viewing as such an ugly character, especially since that day he had been wearing his most elegant suit.

* The monster make-up design by Jack P. Pierce is under copyright to Universal through the year 2026, and licensed by Universal Studios Licensing, Inc.

For more, visit IMDB.

Written on the 4th of July

In the United States, Independence Day (aka the Fourth of July) is a federal holiday commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Congress approved the wording of the Declaration on July 4 and then sent it to the printer.

Observance
- In 1776, John Adams declared, "The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epocha in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival."
- In 1777, thirteen guns were fired, once at morning and again as evening fell, on July 4 in Bristol, Rhode Island.
-Philadelphia celebrated the first anniversary in a manner a modern American would find quite familiar: an official dinner for the Continental Congress, toasts, 13-gun salutes, speeches, prayers, music, parades, troop reviews, and fireworks. Ships were decked with red, white, and blue bunting.
-In 1778, General George Washington marked July 4 with a double ration of rum for his soldiers and an artillery salute.
-In 1779, July 4 fell on a Sunday. The holiday was celebrated on Monday, July 5.
-In 1781, the Massachusetts General Court became the first state legislature to recognize July 4 as a state celebration.
-In 1783, Moravians in Salem, North Carolina, held the first celebration of July 4 in the country with a challenging music program assembled by Johann Friedrich Peter. This work was titled "The Psalm of Joy".
-In 1791 was the first recorded use of the name "Independence Day".
-In 1870, the U.S. Congress made Independence Day an unpaid holiday for federal employees.
-In 1941, Congress changed Independence Day to a paid federal holiday. The residents of Vicksburg, Mississippi, celebrated Independence Day for the first time since July 4, 1863, when the Siege of Vicksburg ended with a Union victory during the American Civil War.

Customs
-Major displays are held in New York on the East River, in Chicago on Lake Michigan, Boston on the Charles River, in St. Louis on the Mississippi River, and on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. During the annual Windsor-Detroit International Freedom Festival, Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario host one of the world's largest fireworks displays, over the Detroit River, to celebrate both American Independence Day and Canada Day.

Learn all about the Declaration and more at Wiki

Have You Called Your Father Yet?

Father's Day is a celebration inaugurated in the early twentieth century to complement Mother's Day to honor and commemorate fathers and forefathers. Father's Day is celebrated on a variety of dates worldwide and typically involves gift-giving, and special dinners to fathers and family-oriented activities. In 2008, it will be celebrated on June 15 in most countries.

There are at least two claims to the origins of father's day in the United States; the first modern Father's Day celebration was held on July 5, 1908, in Fairmont, West Virginia or on June 19th of the same year, in the state of Washington. Today, Father's Day is celebrated on the 3rd Sunday of June.

In West Virginia, it was first celebrated as a church service at Williams Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church South, now known as Central United Methodist Church. Grace Golden Clayton, who is believed to have suggested the service to the pastor, is believed to have been inspired after a deadly mine explosion in nearby Monongah the prior December. This explosion killed 361 men, many of them fathers and recent immigrants to the United States from Italy. Another possible inspiration for the service was Mothers' Day, which had been celebrated for the first time two months prior in Grafton, West Virginia, about 15 miles away.

Another driving force behind Father's Day was Mrs. Sonora Smart Dodd, born in Creston, Washington. Her father, the Civil War veteran William Jackson Smart, raised six children as a single parent in Spokane, Washington. Although she initially suggested June 5, her father's birthday, she did not provide the organizers with enough time to make arrangements, and the celebration was deferred to the third Sunday of June. The first June Father's Day was celebrated on June 19, 1910, in Spokane at the YMCA.

Unofficial support from such figures as William Jennings Bryan was immediate and widespread. President Woodrow Wilson was celebrated by his family in 1916. President Calvin Coolidge recommended it as a national holiday in 1924. In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson made Father's Day a holiday to be celebrated on the third Sunday of June. The holiday was not officially recognized until 1972, during the presidency of Richard Nixon.

Americans are expected to spend at least $11 billion on gifts for Father's Day in 2008. This is about $7 billion less than the amount spent on Mother's Day, which is more steeped in traditional gifts, some of which tend to be more expensive than Father's Day gifts. The average per capita spending on Father's Day is expected to be about $27.60 in 2008.

Have you called your dad yet? Then you can read more at good ol' wiki.