X-Nico

100 unusual facts about Birmingham


Albert Enstone

Albert James Enstone was the second son of Thomas and Flora Enstone of Edgbaston, Birmingham, England.

Alive at Last

Alive at Last is a live album by Train recorded at Workplay Theatre in Birmingham, Alabama over three consecutive nights from June 9 to June 11, 2004.

Allene Roberts

Allene Roberts (born September 1, 1928) was born in Fairfield Highlands, a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama.

Alum Rock

Alum Rock, Birmingham, an area in the United Kingdom, two miles east of Birmingham's city centre

Angela V. Shelton

Angela V. Shelton was born on 4 March 1970 and attended the Roeper School in Birmingham, Michigan.

Annie Easley

Annie J. Easley was an African-American computer scientist, mathematician, and rocket scientist who was born on April 23, 1933, in Birmingham, Alabama, and died June 25, 2011, in Cleveland, Ohio.

Anthony William Hall

He also made many speeches, in Birmingham and elsewhere, in which he set out his claim and challenged the King to a duel, with the loser to be beheaded.

Argent Centre

The Argent Centre is a Grade II* listed building on the corner of Frederick Street and Legge Road in the Jewellery Quarter of Birmingham, England.

Arthur Pentelow

He later went on to work in repertory theatre at the Bristol Old Vic, Guildford and Northampton, before joining the company at Birmingham, where his fellow actors included Derek Jacobi, Rosemary Leach and Albert Finney.

Aubrey Willis Williams

At the very young age of six, Aubrey went to work in as a cash-boy in a Birmingham, Alabama department store.

Birmingham Blitz

The Bull Ring, New Street, High Street, and Dale End all suffered heavy damage.

Birmingham Journal

The Birmingham Journal was the name of two separate and unrelated newspapers published in Birmingham, England.

Birmingham Street Commissioners

The 1773 Act gave powers for the widening of Moor Street, Smallbrook Street, New Street and parts of Colmore Row (previously called Ann street).

Birney Imes

Some of his work is exhibited in the permanent collection of the Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson, Mississippi, the Birmingham Museum of Art in Birmingham, Alabama and the Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois.

Bobby Humphrey

As of 2012, Humphrey is vice president of business development for Bryant Bank in Birmingham, Alabama.

Bobby Riggs

In the 1946 tour against Budge, Riggs won 24 matches and lost 22, plus 1 match tied at Birmingham, Alabama establishing himself as the best player in the world (source : American Lawn Tennis July 15, 1946, page 34).

Bordesley railway station

The station still carries the painted lettering "BR(W) Bordesley Cattle Station", and "Bordesley Cattle Station GWR" from the time when, as part of the Great Western Railway and later British Rail's (Western) region, it was used to bring cattle from the countryside to the Bull Ring markets.

Brewers Investment Corporation

Its registered offices were at Nos.3-4, County Chambers, Corporation Street, Birmingham.

Brian Webber

Brian Webber (December 19, 1967) is an American actor from Birmingham, Alabama.

Bridge Day

In 1983, Michael Glenn Williams from Birmingham, Alabama, drowned when his gear was caught in the current after he made a successful jump.

Bromford Group

Bromford Housing Association Limited, named after Bromford Bridge railway station in the Bromford area of Birmingham, was formed by a group of housing sector professionals in 1963.

Bruno's

The crash caused a large outpouring of grief among the Birmingham metropolitan community due to the family and the company's well-known philanthropic contributions.

Carding

In 1748 Lewis Paul of Birmingham, England invented the hand driven carding machine.

Cecilia Costello

Born near the Bull Ring in Birmingham, she was the youngest of 10 children of parents who left Ireland to escape famine.

Centenary Square tram stop

Network West Midlands have issued a plan of route showing this as their stop on Broad Street, a major thoroughfare of the city.

Chipping Sodbury

Yate station, on the Bristol to Birmingham main line, closed in January 1965 but reopened in May 1989.

City region

The New Local Government Network proposed the creation of city regions as part of on-going reform efforts, while a report released by the IPPR's Centre for Cities proposed the creation of four large city-regions based on Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool and Greater Manchester.

Congenital Heart Surgeons' Society

Data collection required the establishment of a Data Center, initially in Birmingham, Alabama.

Constance Bache

Bache was born in Edgbaston, the daughter of Samuel Bache (1804-1876), a Unitarian minister at the Church of the Messiah, Birmingham; an uncle on her mother's side was James Martineau.

Corporation Street tram stop

Corporation Street will be a stop on the city-centre extension of Line 1 of the Midland Metro onto Corporation Street in Birmingham City Centre, United Kingdom.

Corrupt practices

One of the most high-profile cases of corrupt practices in recent years was that of the local government elections in the Bordesley Green and Aston wards of Birmingham in June 2004.

Danny Driver

He made his Wigmore Hall recital later that year, and has since appeared at Southbank Centre, Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, the Royal Albert Hall, and Symphony Hall, Birmingham.

Dottie Peoples

On July 28, 2008, Peoples performed a free concert at the East Birmingham Church of God in Christ.

Downtown music

Likewise, despite its origin in New York musical politics, "Downtown" music is not solely specific to Manhattan; many major cities such as Chicago, San Francisco, even Birmingham, Alabama have alternative, Downtown music scenes.

Dry plate

The lack of success for the above was not that it did not work, or that it was complicated, but because at the time, transportation — especially timely transportation — was complicated; by the time a plate from Birmingham in England reached New York in the USA it could be best used as window pane.

Edward Thomason

He died in his house in Jury Street, Warwick in 1849, and a memorial was erected to him in St Philip's Cathedral, Birmingham.

Emily Scarratt

Emily is also a PE assistant at King Edward's School Birmingham, following in the footsteps of fellow England rugby international Natasha Hunt.

Eric James Eames

A former steam engine driver, Eames represented the city's Small Heath ward on Birmingham City Council from 1949-1992, without break.

Evan Harris Walker

Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Harris received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Maryland in 1964.

Frank Stitt

Frank Stitt III is the owner and executive chef of Highlands Bar and Grill, Bottega Restaurant, and Chez Fon Fon in Birmingham, Alabama.

George Inwood

After a heavy Luftwaffe air raid on Birmingham on the night of 15/16 October 1940, Inwood was asked by the police to aid in recovery work in Bishop Street (in the Five Ways area.

George Linnaeus Banks

George was born in Birmingham, the son of a seedsman familiar with the plant nomenclature of Linnaeus.

Gerald A. Lewis

Born in 1934 in Birmingham, Alabama to Bernard and Molly Lewis, Gerald Lewis was educated in Birmingham schools before attending Harvard College and graduating with an A.B. degree in 1955.

Henry Folliott, 3rd Baron Folliott

He married Elizabeth Pudsey, heiress of Langley Hall, Sutton Coldfield in 1677 and built a substantial mansion, Four Oaks Hall, Sutton Coldfield, to a design by architect William Wilson.

Herbert Manzoni

His attitudes became the orthodoxy and directly or indirectly led to the demolition of a number of much loved landmarks, such as the old Birmingham Central Library and the original Bull Ring market hall.

Hospital Corporation of America

In April 1998, Birmingham, Alabama-based HealthSouth Corporation announced it was acquiring the majority of HCA's surgical division.

Jack Cotton

Jack Cotton was educated at King Edward VI Grammar School, then at Cheltenham College.

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In 1937, he built King Edward House on the site of his old school, which was rebuilt in Edgbaston close to the University of Birmingham.

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Jack Cotton (1 January 1903, Birmingham - 21 March 1964, Nassau) was a British property developer.

James Zwerg

The group traveled by bus to Birmingham, where Zwerg was first arrested for not moving to the back of the bus with his black seating companion.

Janet Monach Patey

Whytock's first appearance, as a child, was made at Birmingham.

Johann Löwenthal

Just days after being defeated by Morphy, Löwenthal had his greatest success by winning the British Chess Association Congress knockout tournament in Birmingham, England on 27 August 1858.

John Bedford

He was born in Birmingham to John and Sarah Bedford, and followed his father into the iron trade to become a japanner in 1748.

Joseph Chamberlain Sixth Form College

Joseph Chamberlain Sixth Form College is located in Highgate, Birmingham, England.

Jurys Inn Birmingham

Built using concrete cladding and steel joists, this building was part of the plan to redevelop Birmingham in the 1960s.

Kieron Quirke

Quirke was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham and the Junior Royal Academy of Music where he won the Dame Ruth Railton Prize in 1997.

Kim Sunée

She now lives in Birmingham, Alabama, and is food editor for Cottage Living magazine, a Time Warner publication.

Kotli

Many Kotli city residents have ties to British nationals in the city of Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, Bradford, Luton, Bedford, Watford and Birmingham.

Larry Lemak

Larry A. Lemak, M.D., FAAOS, FCRSC, born 1943 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is an orthopedic surgeon who practices at the Lemak Sports Medicine & Orthopedics in Birmingham, Alabama, located at Trinity Medical Center (Birmingham).

Larry Taunton

Larry Alex Taunton (born, May 24, 1967) is an American author, columnist, radio talk show host, and cultural commentator based out of Birmingham, Alabama who serves as the Executive Director of Fixed Point Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to the public defense of the Christian faith.

Lee Price

Price attended the Shades Valley High School in Birmingham, Alabama, and earned her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Alabama in Birmingham.

Leonard Lord

On 26 March 1962 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Lambury, of Northfield in the County of Warwick.

Maureen Jennings

She was born on Eastfield Road in Birmingham, England; she spent her formative years there until emigrating to Canada at the age of seventeen with her mother.

Michael Staniforth

Michael Staniforth (15 December 1942 – 31 July 1987), born in Selly Oak, Birmingham, was a British stage actor.

Middelaldercentret

A historical reenactment society from King Edward's School, Birmingham have visited the museum several times as a part of their education.

Mike Mordecai

Michael Howard Mordecai (born December 13, 1967 in Birmingham, Alabama) is a right-handed hitting/throwing infielder in Major League Baseball who most recently played for the Florida Marlins.

Mindless Ones

Plokta, a Duke of Hell, decided to conquer the world exponentially from a tower block in Birmingham.

Motion Industries

, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, is the nation's largest distributor of industrial parts.

National Telephone Company

In 1886 it built an ornate red brick and terracotta building 19, Newhall Street, now grade I listed, for its Birmingham Central exchange, opened in 1887.

Oregrounds iron

In Britain, the iron was known by these 'marks', and the quality of each brand was well-known to the buyers in London, Sheffield, Birmingham and elsewhere.

Pato Banton

The album Universal Love featured a song covered by Banton called "United We Stand", which was written by fellow Birmingham musician Ray Watts, of the group Beshara.

Patricia Leonard

Leonard returned to singing in concerts and oratorios, at venues such as Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, the Barbican Arts Centre, Symphony Hall, Birmingham, and St. David's Hall in Cardiff, Wales.

Paul Moon James

James was also a poet, and lawyer, who also served for a time as magistrate of Worcestershire and later as High Bailiff of Birmingham, England.

Public Catalogue Foundation

Oil paintings in public ownership in Birmingham,The Public Catalogue Foundation, Andrew Ellis, Sonia Roe, 2008, ISBN 9781904931386

Reggie King

Born in Birmingham, Alabama, he was a 6'6" and 225 lb forward and played college basketball at the University of Alabama. He had a career in the NBA from 1979 to 1985. King's nickname in college was "the Mule.

Richard N. Frye

Born in Birmingham, Alabama, to a family of immigrants from Sweden, "Freij" has four children, his second marriage being to an Iranian-Assyrian scholar, Dr Eden Naby, from Urmia, Iran who teaches at Columbia University.

RK2 plasmid

RK 2 was first isolated in connection with an outbreak of antibotic-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella aerogenes in Birmingham in 1969, as one of a family of plasmids implicated in transfer of Ampicillin resistance between bacterial strains.

Ronnie Bruno

He is a co-founder and chairman of the Bruno Event Team, a Birmingham, Alabama-based sports marketing and event management company.

Roy Starrs

He was born in Birmingham, England on November 18, 1946 and became a Canadian citizen as an adult.

Sadie Lloyd

Pam was revealed to be living in Birmingham, having been paroled a year earlier, working as a maid.

Saks, Inc.

After acquiring Parisian, Proffitt's relocated its corporate headquarters to Birmingham, Alabama from Knoxville in October 1997.

Samuel D. Ratcliffe

He grew up in Birmingham, Alabama and graduated from Birmingham Southern College, moving to New York in 1968 to pursue a career as an actor.

Sarah Smiley

Sarah Smiley has a B.S. in Education from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama and a M.A. in Mass Communication fro the University of Maine in Orono.

Scott Spiegel

He is best known for co-writing the screenplay for the movie Evil Dead II with longtime friend, film director Sam Raimi, with whom he attended Wylie E. Groves High School in Birmingham, Michigan.

Selby Clewer

He was responsible for the design of Quinton Methodist Church in 1968, St. David's Church, Shenley Green which opened in 1970 and the Friends Meeting House in Redditch and the adjoining housing complex, built for the Redditch Friends Housing Trust.

Shifnal

The railway line from London and Birmingham to Holyhead was constructed through Shifnal at high-level in the late 1840s.

Smalbroke family

He was instrumental in the foundation of King Edwards School in New Street.

Sue Ellen Brown

Sue Ellen Brown (born 1954) is an artist living in Birmingham, Alabama.

Tara Gray

She is also a former beauty queen originally from Birmingham, Alabama who has competed in the Miss Teen USA and Miss USA pageants.

Totally Jodie Marsh

Totally Jodie Marsh: Who'll Take Her Up the Aisle? was a British reality television show, which saw glamour model Jodie Marsh audition a potential husband in London, Edinburgh, Sheffield, Birmingham, Cardiff and Bournemouth.

Trocadero, Birmingham

The Trocadero, 17 Temple Street, Birmingham, England, currently a pub, is a dazzling demonstration of the use of coloured glazed tile and terracotta in the post-Victorian era of architecture.

Ty G. Allushuski

Allushuski mainly covered prep sports in Shelby County in suburban Birmingham, Alabama.

Undular bore

"A tornado in Birmingham, Alabama in April 1998 that came in contact with an undular bore increased in size and intensity."

Vann McElroy

Vann William McElroy (born 13 January 1960 in Birmingham, Alabama), is a former professional American football player who was selected by the Los Angeles Raiders in the third round of the 1982 NFL Draft.

Victoria Law Courts

Standing at the northern end of the street it is complemented by the similarly coloured Methodist Central Hall, which stands opposite.

Victoria Square, Birmingham

Part of the square was once occupied by Christ Church (built 1805–13), but the church was demolished in 1899.

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It is a short walk from St. Philip's Cathedral on Colmore Row and is on the main pedestrian route between the Bull Ring and Brindleyplace areas.

Walter Schoel Engineering Co.

located in the City of Birmingham, Alabama has offered Consulting Civil Engineering, Hydrologic and Environmental Consulting, and land Surveying services, since its founding by Herman Schoel in 1888.

William Barleycorn

He was the son of Napoleon Barleycorn, also a Primitive Methodist missionary in Fernando Po, who sent his sons to be educated at Bourne College in Quinton, England.

WTVR-TV

On January 6, 2009, Raycom and Local TV LLC announced that they would be swapping stations in Richmond and Birmingham.


1993–94 Colchester United F.C. season

United used six keepers again and Steve McGavin moved to Birmingham for £150,000 in January with no funds made available.

1998–99 S.S. Lazio season

Lazio's best moment of the 1998-99 season came when they beat Mallorca 2-1 at Villa Park in Birmingham in the 1999 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup Final, following goals by Vieri and Pavel Nedvěd.

AmSouth Bancorporation

AmSouth was previously known as First National Bank of Birmingham, which was first organized by Charles Linn in 1872.

Benjamin Hall Kennedy

He was born at Summer Hill, near Birmingham, the eldest son of Rann Kennedy (1772–1851), of a branch of the Ayrshire family which had settled in Staffordshire.

Birmingham Zulus

The trouble in the Britannia Stadium started when a group of about 200 Birmingham fans tore down fencing separating them from Stoke fans.

Bülent Şenver

He has been through various trainings in the fields of independent auditing, managerial skills and banking in London, Birmingham, Chicago, Houston, Washington D.C., Paris, Brussels and Geneva.

Callum Innes

A substantial selection of his best-known series, the "Exposed" paintings, was exhibited in 1998 at the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, England, and at the Kunsthalle Bern the following year.

Capewell

George Capewell (1843–1919), American inventor, born in Birmingham, England

Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, the Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution

McWhorter grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, and recounts being about the same age as the girls killed in the September 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church, though she "was growing up on the wrong side of the revolution".

Chief Blue Horse

Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show was part of the celebration during the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle in England, and toured through Birmingham, Salford, and London for five months.

Coleg Harlech

The other long-term, mature students colleges in the UK are Ruskin College at Oxford; Northern College at Barnsley; Hillcroft College in Surbiton; Fircroft College at Birmingham; and Newbattle Abbey College in Midlothian, Scotland.

Days of May

In 1819 a crowd of 15,000 had gathered at Newhall Hill in Birmingham to symbolically elect Charles Wolsley as the town's "Legislatorial Attorney and Representative" in Westminster; when Manchester followed Birmingham's lead two months later troops opened fire and killed 15 in the event that became known as the Peterloo Massacre.

Emmett Ripley Cox

He was in the U.S. Air National Guard from 1958 to 1964, and was in private practice in Birmingham, Alabama from 1959 to 1964, and in Mobile, Alabama from 1964 to 1981.

Freddie Goodwin

It was at Birmingham where he introduced the young Trevor Francis into league football.

Frederick Rolfe

In 1887 he was sponsored to train at St Mary's College, Oscott near Birmingham and in 1889 was a student at the Scots College in Rome, but was thrown out by both due to his inability to concentrate on priestly studies and his erratic behaviour.

Gordon Warwick

His specialisms were limestone and semi-arid climate processes, and he was a contributor to books such British Caving with Cecil Cullingford, A Dictionary of Geographical Terms with Sir L. Dudley Stamp and to the Guide to Birmingham and its Region of Prof Michael Wise.

Gus Mayer

Gus Mayer is a Birmingham, Alabama based, family-owned, upscale specialty department store that caters to upper-end clientele and is known for its high-end fashions.

Heino Puuste

On May 6, 1983, he threw at Birmingham a new Soviet record of 94.20 meters, eclipsing the old mark (and former world record) of 93.80 by Jānis Lūsis.

Isaiah Edward Robinson, Jr.

He lived in Middletown, New York with his adopted sons before he returned to Birmingham, Alabama, where he died on April 14, 2011, following a stroke.

Jamie Shepherd

During his degree at Staffordshire University, Stoke-on-Trent, Jamie was freelancing at Dee 106.3 in Chester, Brmb in Birmingham, Heart 100.7 in Birmingham and Heart Radio in North Wales and Cheshire.

John Brekell

Joshua Toulmin prints a letter (dated Liverpool, 3 Dec. 1730) from Brekell to Rev. Thomas Pickard of Birmingham, showing that Brekell had been asked to Birmingham, but had 'handsome encouragement to continue' where he was.

John Kenneally

John Patrick Kenneally was born as Leslie Jackson at 104 Alexandra Road, Balsall Heath, Birmingham.

Joseph Pickford

St Mary's Church, Gun Quarter, Birmingham, West Midlands (1773-4, now demolished).

Kathleen Dayus

She was awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree by University of Birmingham in 1992 in recognition of her contribution to the written record of Birmingham's history.

Little Kimble railway station

The G8 Summit was held in Birmingham that year and the wives of the G8 countries' leaders, including Cherie Blair and Hillary Clinton, were taken to Chequers via the Royal Train and Little Kimble, whiuch is the nearest station to Chequers.

Loveman's

Loveman's of Alabama, a Birmingham, Alabama-based chain of department stores with locations across Alabama

Marie Weaver

In "Four Voices: Echoes," (Bare Hands Gallery, Birmingham, AL) her work was shown with Janice Kluge (sculptor), Lucy Jaffe (painter), and Sonja Rieger (photographer) and Marie Weaver (printmaker).

Moon Base One

The 'patient' will be Tony Hale, from Aston near Birmingham (who goes on to feature in the rest of the series).

Moses Haughton

Moses Haughton the elder, (sometimes spelled "Horton") painter, designer and engraver who spent most of his life in Birmingham

Patel Taylor

Most recently the newly completed Eastside City Park was awarded 4 RIBA awards – a National award, West Midlands award, Building of the Year award and Client of the year for Birmingham City Council.

Prince engine

The engines’ components are produced by PSA at their Douvrin, France, facility, with Mini engine construction at Hams Hall in Birmingham, England.

Robert Collyer

In 1883, when he visited Birmingham in England, he engaged Marie Bethell Beauclerc to report and edit his sermons and prayers which were published during the same year.

Robert Lee Minor

Minor was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and made his first television appearance in 1973 on the television program, Search, then appeared in tons of shows such as: Barnaby Jones, McCloud, The Six Million Dollar Man, Eight is Enough, and Starsky and Hutch among other popular television programs.

Salem Ramaswami Mudaliar

Ramaswami halted at Edinburgh on way to Aberdeen to listen to the speech of the liberal leader William Ewart Gladstone while he regarded the speech given by John Bright at Birmingham as the best he had ever listened to in life.

Socio-Analysis

Northfield Hospital was a military hospital, situated in Birmingham, in the English Midlands, with the task of treating soldiers who had developed psychiatric problems, in order to get them back into the war.

T. J. Lang

Lang attended Lakeland High School in White Lake, Michigan before transferring to Brother Rice High School in Birmingham, Michigan.

The Pitman Vegetarian Hotel

The Pitman Vegetarian Hotel was a vegetarian hotel that opened in 1898 in the County Buildings (now Grade II* listed), Corporation Street, Birmingham, England, as an expansion of a vegetarian restaurant on the same site.

The Twelfth Man

As befits the name (a reference to the non-playing reserve in an eleven-player cricket side), Birmingham particularly focuses on cricket commentators such as Richie Benaud, Bill Lawry and Tony Greig.

Tim Elkington

Elkington was born in Edgbaston near Birmingham on 23 December 1920, the only child of Alan Durham Elkington and his wife Isabel Frances (née Griffin).

Tyseley railway station

It is situated at the junction of the lines from Birmingham towards Leamington Spa and Stratford-upon-Avon, and is adjacent to a large railway depot and Tyseley Locomotive Works.

William F. Durand

A native of Connecticut, he was a member of the first graduating class of Birmingham High School in Derby, Connecticut (now Derby High School) in 1877.