Father's Day celebrated on different dates around the world

Father's Day is marked in much of the world on the third Sunday of June, a tradition that traces back to 1909 in Spokane, Michigan, where Sonora Smart Dodd petitioned for a day honoring fathers after her mother died. Dodd's father, William Jackson Smart, had raised six children on his own, and the first Father's Day was held in Spokane on June 19, 1910. U.S. President Richard Nixon formally designated the third Sunday in June as the national Father's Day holiday in 1972. Canada, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa and the United Kingdom also observe the holiday on the same date. Other countries follow different calendars: El Salvador and Guatemala mark Father's Day on June 17, while Nicaragua, Poland and Uganda observe it on June 23. In most Arab countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Iraq and Lebanon, Father's Day is celebrated annually on June 21.