The Missing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Children

image via Blastr

In 1964, Roald Dahl released his third children's book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The plot essentially consists of a gleefully deranged candy maker methodically picking five children to slowly kill off one by one in his candy factory, turning them into the very delicious treats his factory produces.

But what if I told you there originally wasn't just five children Wonka was leading to their deaths?Because in Dahl's original draft, there were fifteen children.

Wartime Production Overdrive

image via The Atlantic

During periods of war, nations tend to kick their production capabilities up about a million notches in order to continuously resupply their troops. In World War II, with many ships being misplaced near the bottom of the ocean, and aircraft making less than pleasant landings . . .

image via Youtube

“The forecast calls for some minor turbulence, with an eighty percent chance of fiery death.”

 . . . the United States and the United Kingdom had to push their wartime productions into insanity, which led to some incredible feats.

The Real Life Top Gun

image via Wallpapers Abyss

Dale Snodgrass was a United States Navy pilot from 1974 until 1997, flying the F-14 “Tomcat” made famous by the film Top Gun. In the film, Maverick uses his jet in ridiculous antics such as low flybys of towers to buzz the controllers. Nobody in real life would do something so stupid less they wanted to end up in the brig.

Unless you're the previously mentioned Dale Snodgrass.

That Time Drunk Scientists Made a Major Discovery

image via Gigaom

The National Institute for Materials Science in Japan was working on a science experiment that involved dipping a compound into various combinations of heated water and ethanol to see if its superconductivity was improved. It's important, complex science that among other things could lead to shit like hover cars.

So it's amazing that despite the complexity, perhaps their biggest discovery only occurred after someone decided to crack open the booze and hold an office party.

The Heartfelt Pixar Movie (That Nearly Killed a Baby)

image via Earn This

Toy Story 2 is considered one of the greatest children's films of all time. Holding a mind-blowing 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the end product is obviously the result of a huge amount of hard work and heart poured into the film by Pixar employees.

That, and a baby's near death.

The French Warship that Fooled Pirates

image via Wikipedia

In the film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Captain Maximus Aurelius of the British Royal Navy is assigned to hunt down a French privateer that is threatening commercial ships in the area. In order to accomplish this, he tricks the French pirates into approaching his ship, the HMS Surprise, to almost point blank range before firing by disguising the Surprise as a vulnerable commercial ship.

Captain Jor-El wins the day in the end, easily defeating the very surprised pirates. But that movie took place in like the 1850's or something. In an age of technology that allows ridiculous things like finding a high school shaped like the Millennium Falcon, it would be tough to pull off a strategy like this.

Unless it's 2009. And you're on Nivôse of the French Navy. Who in an odd twist actually wound up winning . . .

The Christmas Gift Given by Nazis

image via Wikipedia and ChristmasKid

During World War II, the Allies found themselves capturing more and more prisoners in their plight to stop Hitler from taking his rage out all over Europe for being denied entrance to art school.

image via SkitCafe

It's amazing we were ever terrified of this lil' fella.

Many of these prisoners were shipped back to the United States and put into large POW camps scattered across the nation. And at one particular camp in Algona, Iowa, a wonderful relic that was gifted from the POWs is still on display every Christmas.

Pizza Hut Delivers to Outer Space

image via Whim

Delivering a pizza is a normal procedure for any pizza chain. Domino's delivers more than a million pizzas daily, to all corners of the globe. But to Pizza Hut “the globe” was just another limitation that needed to be broken in the name of delivering tasty food.

So in 2001 they went ahead and delivered one to motherfuckin' space.

Hijacking a Drone for Under $1000

image via Wikipedia

The US Department of Homeland Security was skeptical when it received a notice from Todd Humphreys at the University of Texas in Austin warning them about the threat of hijacked drones possibly being used as missiles. When Humphreys pressed the issue, the DHS dared him to go ahead and try to hijack a drone for less than $1000.

Imagine their surprise when he did.

The World's Most Useless Aircraft Carrier

image via Phoenix

The list of nations that currently operate aircraft carriers is a short one. While obvious nations like the United States, China, Russia, France, and the United Kingdom are all there, the list also contains some surprises. Namely, Thailand.

The Most Unwatchable Film of All Time

image via Alex Heremet

Andy Warhol was a man known for being visionary in a way very few people could even pretend to understand. His film-making endeavors are as equally baffling, whether he was filming a man receiving a blow-job for thirty-five minutes, or someone sleeping for six hours. But if there is one film that takes the cake for strangeness, it would be his 1964 “masterpiece” Empire, which has been called the most unwatchable film of all time.

When Wyoming Tried to Prepare for the End

image via Wikipedia

Preparing for the collapse of civilized society is not something on the top of most peoples minds. With more pressing matters affecting the world right now, who wants to worry about the day when Waterworld becomes a reality? So it's obvious there wouldn't be any politicians legitimately worried about such a scenario.

Unless you're talking about Wyoming.

The Stealth Fighter Downed with Vintage Radar

image via Wikipedia

In 1999, the United States found itself at war with Yugoslavia. Leading the campaign was the venerable F-117 stealth fighter, famous for proving it's worth with zero losses during the Gulf War despite flying through absurd amounts of anti-aircraft fire.

The US Army Star Trek Office

image via Wikipedia

The US Army, aside from being one of the largest armies in the world, may also be home to one of the world's strangest offices. All one has to do is go to Fort Belvoir, Virginia where you will find that the headquarters of the US Army Intelligence and Security Command looks oddly like the starship Enterprise.

The Transformers Scene that Actually Happened

image via Arnold AFB

It's hard to imagine a scene from a Michael Bay movie even coming close to reality. Especially when the scene is from a film series whose plot is devoted to the adventures of strangely explosion-prone talking vehicles. But reality likes to be funny like that sometimes.

The US Air Force Once Had the Security of Spaceballs

image via ScreenInvasion and Wikipedia

For decades, the Soviet Union and United States engaged in a stare down, waiting for the other to make a move. One suspicious event, and a hailstorm of nuclear missiles weren't far away. We came close to nuclear warfare more times than most would like to admit. And with the security systems we had in place, boy are we lucky the missiles weren't ever launched.

Wait, what?

Yamamoto's Line That Wasn't

image via Wikipedia

We've all heard the line before. Whether we saw it on film, read about it in a book, or were taught it in history class. After the devastating attack at Pearl Harbor in 1941, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto delivered one of the most famous quotes of all time:

"I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."

With that one line, Admiral Yamamoto summed up the direction of the entire war for the Japanese.