Grand Junction Railway, the world's first long-distance railway, opens between Birmingham and Liverpool.

The Grand Junction Railway (GJR) was an early railway company in the United Kingdom, which existed between 1833 and 1846. The line built by the company, which opened in 1837, linked the Liverpool and Manchester Railway to Birmingham via Warrington, Crewe, Stafford and Wolverhampton. This was the first trunk railway to be completed in England, and arguably the world's first long-distance railway with steam traction. It terminated at Curzon Street Station in Birmingham, which it shared with the London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR), whose adjacent platforms gave an interchange with full connectivity between Liverpool, Manchester and London.

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands region, in England. It is the largest local authority district in England by population and the second-largest city in Britain – commonly referred to as the second city of the United Kingdom – with a population of 1.16 million people in the city proper in 2022. Birmingham borders the Black Country to its west and, together with the city of Wolverhampton and towns including Dudley and Solihull, forms the West Midlands conurbation. The royal town of Sutton Coldfield is incorporated within the city limits to the northeast. The urban area has a population of 2.65 million.

Liverpool is a port city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, 178 miles (286 km) northwest of London. It had a population of 496,770 in 2022 and is the administrative, cultural, and economic centre of the Liverpool City Region, a combined authority area with a population of over 1.5 million.