Do you know how we got the national observance of Mother's Day?

Mental Floss honors Mother's Day with ten stories about "badass moms."

A mother's love knows no (weight) limits:

On April 9, 1982, Georgia teen Tony Cavallo was working on his Chevy Impala in his driveway when the jack collapsed, pinning him under the car. That’s when Tony’s mom, Angela, did the superhuman: The 50-something woman lifted the 3,500-pound vehicle four inches and held it for about five minutes as two neighbors dragged her son to safety. Scientists have a hard time re-creating such adrenaline-fueled feats in the lab, but Angela’s “hysterical strength” does seem to prove that a mother’s love knows no (weight) limits.

The gang leader:

In 1966, Mary Thomas—a single mother of nine living in Chicago’s West Side—found 25 street toughs on her stoop. The men, members of the notorious Vice Lords gang, had come to recruit her seven sons. Thomas quietly excused herself, then reappeared with a shotgun and a message: “There[’s] only one gang around here, and that’s the Thomas gang.” Thomas made sure that each of her kids graduated from high school, and you probably know her youngest: basketball Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas.

The bear fighter:

In 2006, Lydia Angyiou was outside with her two sons in northern Quebec when she saw a polar bear poised to attack her 7-year-old. Lydia struck first, kicking and punching the 700-pound beast before it could get near her son. A strange wrestling match ensued until a neighbor finally shot the bear. Lydia was rushed to the hospital, but miraculously survived with just a few scratches and a black eye. Locals were stunned; nobody tackles a bear and lives to tell the tale. Just ask Goldilocks.

Founder of Mother's Day:

During the Civil War, Ann Jarvis cared for the wounded on both sides of the fight. She also tried to orchestrate peace between Union and Confederate moms by forming a Mother’s Friendship Day. All that compassion inspired her daughter, Anna, to campaign for a national Mother’s Day. It took Anna years, but in 1914, Woodrow Wilson made it a national observance. By the 1920s, though, Anna regretted how the holiday was observed. She especially despised greeting cards, griping: “A printed card means nothing except that you are too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone in the world.”

Go here to read about the other six moms featured in the story.