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| NORAD has enabled citizens
all over the world to track Santa Clause online since 1997. Tracking
santa started back in 1955,when a Colorado Springs-based Sears store
ran an advertisement encouraging children to call Santa Claus on
a special telephone hotline. Due to a printing error, the phone
number that was printed was the hotline for the Director of Operations
at the Continental Air Defense (CONAD). Colonel Harry Shoup took
the first Santa call on Christmas Eve of 1955 from a six-year old
boy who began reciting his Christmas list. Shoup didn't find the
call funny, but after asking the mother of the second caller what
was happening, then realizing the mistake that occurred, he instructed
his staff to give Santa's position to any child who called in.
Three years later, the governments of the United States and
Canada combined their national domestic air defenses into the North
American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), but the tradition continued.Now
major media outlets as well as children call in to inquire on Santa's
location. NORAD relies on volunteers to help make Santa tracking
possible. Many employees at Cheyenne Mountain and Peterson Air Force
Base spend part of their Christmas Eve with their families and friends
at NORAD's Santa Tracking Operations Center in order to answer phones
and provide Santa updates to thousands of callers. (
wikipedia
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