The Surrey Iron Railway, arguably the world's first public railway, opens in south London, United Kingdom.

The Surrey Iron Railway (SIR) was a horse-drawn narrow-gauge plateway that linked Wandsworth and Croydon via Mitcham, all then in Surrey but now suburbs of south London, in England. It was established by an act of Parliament in 1801, and opened partly in 1802 and partly in 1803. It was a toll…