How NORAD's Santa tracker was ACCIDENTALLY launched by a child's call to a top ... trends now
Nearly seven decades ago, in the midst of the Cold War, a five-year-old child inadvertently called a top-secret emergency line reserved only for the US president and one four-star general.
The innocent request? A chat with none other than Santa Claus.
'Hello, is this Santa?' he asked Colonel Harry Shoup, who was stationed at the Continental Air Defense Command in Colorado Springs, Colorado, when he answered the confidential line in early December 1955 - fully expecting the worst.
A call on the emergency line meant only one thing - the outbreak of World War III. Only one other person - a four-star general at the Pentagon - had access to the hotline number.
That mischievous misdial ended up birthing the most unique mission of The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) - the Santa Tracker.
This year marks NORAD's 68th Christmas tracking Santa.
'Hello, is this Santa?' he asked Colonel Harry Shoup, who was stationed at the Continental Air Defense Command in Colorado Springs when he answered the confidential line in early December 1955 - fully expecting the worst
The boy's mother revealed the source of the confusion: a Sears ad containing a phone number to call Santa
Nearly seven decades ago, in the midst of the Cold War, a five-year-old child inadvertently called a top-secret emergency line reserved only for the US president and one four-star general
Shoup's family revealed their stern father was far from amused when he initially answered the phone - and was reportedly 'annoyed' and 'upset' thinking it was a prank call, according to a 2014 NPR interview.
But when the child began to cry, Shoup realized it was a mistake and switched gears.
The boy's mother revealed the source of the confusion - a Sears ad containing a phone number to call Santa.
Upon entering the command center on Christmas Eve, Shoup found a drawing of Santa's sleigh on the tracking board. His airmen had whimsically depicted Santa and his reindeer coming over the North Pole.
Shoup then playfully called a radio station, declaring, 'This is the commander at the Combat Alert Center, and we have an unidentified flying object. Why, it looks like a sleigh.'
Radio stations soon began calling him every hour, asking, 'Where's Santa now?'
Its digital reach has grown from a tracker website to social media, attracting millions of visitors from over 200 countries and is now available in Korean among its growing list of languages
Over the decades, NORAD's Santa mission has expanded, with volunteers fielding around 130,000 calls annually
