Santa Claus
The origins of the NORAD Tracks Santa program began in the United States in 1955, when a Sears Roebuck store in Colorado Springs, Colorado gave children a number to call a "Santa hotline." The number was mistyped, resulting in children calling the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) on Christmas Eve instead. Colonel Harry Shoup, the Director of Operations, received the first call for Santa and responded by telling children there were signs on the radar that Santa was indeed heading south from the North Pole. A tradition began which continued under the name NORAD Tracks Santa when in 1958, the United States and Canada jointly created the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD). This tracking can now be done through the Internet and NORAD's website.