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TIL that Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' wasn't originally intended to be presented as a work of fiction. His editor rejected the manuscript believing it would cause widespread panic, given that Jack the ripper was active in London at the time. The version we read starts on page 102 of the original script.

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d8mmK TIL: Australian wallabies are eating opium poppies and creating crop circles as they hop around "as high as a kite"
GAokQ TIL that Jesse James stole a gold shipment from America's transcontinental railroad in 1873. A Chinese student wrote "nothing occurred on our Eastward journey to mar the enjoyment ... excepting a train robbery, a consequent smashup of the engine, and the murder of the engineer".
R7am8 TIL Stanley Kubrick was supposed to give Malcolm McDowell 2.5% of the profit from A Clockwork Orange, but never told McDowell about the arrangement and never gave him the money.
9jd7 TIL that Harvard professor Roger Fisher proposed implanting nuclear launch codes in a volunteer so that the President would have to kill an innocent person before firing. The Pentagon rejected the idea fearing the President would not go through with it even if it was necessary.
5r8p TIL An artist carved a black violin (Blackbird) from his grandfather’s headstone (diabase), and used mammoth ivory for the bridge, gold leaf for the interior, Harjedalan (black) rock for the back plate, and ebony for the rest. It took him 2 years to make and weighs 2 kilograms.