Erro em conexao

Programação Java
#1

Bom dia Galera !!

Estou seguindo os exemplos de um livro e estou com o seguinte erro :

type Exception report

message

description The server encountered an internal error () that prevented it from fulfilling this request.

exception

org.apache.jasper.JasperException: Exception in JSP: /ListaCidades.jsp:35

32: }
33:
34: try{
35: stmt = connection.createStatement();
36: }catch(SQLException e){
37: e.printStackTrace();
38: }

Stacktrace:
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.handleJspException(JspServletWrapper.java:451)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:373)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:329)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:265)
javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:803)

root cause

java.lang.NullPointerException
org.apache.jsp.ListaCidades_jsp._jspService(ListaCidades_jsp.java:76)
org.apache.jasper.runtime.HttpJspBase.service(HttpJspBase.java:98)
javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:803)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:331)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:329)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:265)
javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:803)

note The full stack trace of the root cause is available in the Apache Tomcat/5.5.25 logs.

Apache Tomcat/5.5.25

<%@ page language=“java” contentType="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"
pageEncoding=“ISO-8859-1”%>

Insert title here <%@ page import="java.sql.*"%> <% 
        Connection connection = null;
		String user = "root";
		String password = "root";
		String url = "jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/aula";
		Statement stmt = null;
		ResultSet rs = null;

		try {
			Class.forName("com.mysql.jdbc.Driver").newInstance();
		} catch (InstantiationException ae) {
			ae.printStackTrace();
		} catch (IllegalAccessError be) {
			be.printStackTrace();
		} catch (ClassNotFoundException ce) {
			ce.printStackTrace();
		}

		try {
			connection = DriverManager.getConnection(url, user, password);
		}catch(SQLException e){
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
		
		try{
		    stmt = connection.createStatement();  			    
		}catch(SQLException e){
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
		
		try{			
			rs = stmt.executeQuery("select * from cidade order by nome");
		}catch(SQLException e){
			e.printStackTrace();				
		}
		
		out.println("<h1> Lista de Cidades </h1><h2>");

		while(rs.next()){
			out.println(rs.getString("nome")+"<br");
			
		}
		out.println("</h2>");
		
	%>

Desde já agradeço .

#2

Teu codigo parece certo o nobanco de dados tencidades cadastradas?

#3