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NORAD or the North American Aerospace Defense Command started tracking Santa’s movements #onthisday in 1955. By mistake a Sears department store in Colorado placed an ad in the local newspaper, telling children they would call Santa Claus with the number ME 2-6681; this number was actually a direct line to Col. Harry Shoup’s desk at the Continental Air Defense Command (now NORAD). Children flooded the phone line due to the misprint and Col. Shoup tasked a few airmen to answer the phone line as St. Nick. Now in addition to a phone number, NORAD tracks Santa’s deliveries every year through a website, an app, and multiple social media accounts. What is a winter holiday tradition you and your loved ones follow? Image: Piedmont Airlines timetable, 1988. Gift of the William Hough Collection. 2008.108.671 This image was posted on December 24, 2019.