I
City (pop., 2000: 249,459), north-central Alabama, U.S. It is Alabama's largest city.
Founded in 1871 by a land company backed by railroad officials, it was named for the English city. It developed as the South's iron and steel centre. From nearby Port Birmingham a barge canal leads south to Mobile . Birmingham was the scene of civil rights drives by civil rights movement .
II
City and metropolitan borough (pop., 2001: 977,091), central England.
Birmingham lies 100 mi (160 km) northwest of London. Its first charter was granted in 1166. It was a small manufacturing town until the 18th century, when it became a centre of the Industrial Revolution , counting among its citizens {{link=Watt, James">James Watt , Joseph Priestley , and John Baskerville . It suffered heavy bombing during World War II but was subsequently rebuilt. It remains the chief centre of Britain's light and medium industry, and it is also the cultural centre for a wide area. Birmingham is the site of two universities and of a grammar school founded by King Edward VI in 1552.