How a child's accidental call to a top-secret hotline set off NORAD's Santa tracker

On Christmas Day 1955, a little boy named Bruce Clark, aged six, was playing with his home telephone. He pressed the number 7 on the keypad, then mistakenly pressed 0. This led him to the top-secret NORAD hotline, which was used to track Soviet missiles during the Cold War.

When NORAD's shift officer, Captain Hans Kurtz, picked up the phone, he heard Bruce ask, "Can you tell me where Santa is?"

Kurtz initially thought it was a nuisance call, but then realized it was a child asking about Santa. He decides to help him and tells Bruce that Santa is currently in Canada and is on his way to the United States.

With his reply to Bruce, Kurtz started a new tradition. Other parents learned of the call through the radio and newspapers and began calling NORAD to find out where Santa was.

NORAD quickly realized that this was a great opportunity to engage with people and promote the Christmas spirit. They began tracking Santa's movements around the world and published the information on their website.

The NORAD Santa Tracker is now one of the most popular Christmas websites in the world. Millions of people visit every year to find out when Santa will arrive at their home.

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