 History was made in December 1955 when a phone call came in to the Continental Air Defense Command in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Answering the call, Colonel Harry Schaap was surprised to hear the voice of a child, asking to speak to Santa Claus. Soon after, more phone calls began filling up the phone lines, all with eager children, hoping for a chance to talk to Old St. Nick. Little did Colonel Schaap and his team know, a department store had placed an ad in the local paper hoping to draw children to their holiday toy sale. The misprinted phone number rang directly into an important red phone at the Conan Operation Center and thus, a holiday tradition was born. Colonel Schaap's command team filled the calls all night long, checking radars and informing children of Santa's progress. The tradition continued through the founding of NORAD in 1958 and has gone on to become a global phenomenon.