Liverpool - 2 Birmingham City - 2 Clinton Morrison grabbed two goals in the last half hour - the second in the fourth minute of injury time - to give Birmingham a famous point.
For Liverpool it was a case of another two-goal lead thrown away after Newcastle had clawed their way back from two behind at Anfield last week.
But this time Steve Bruce's Premiership newboys were the ones leaping for joy in front of delirious fans. Morrison was vilified here a couple of years ago when he was at Crystal Palace and had criticised Michael Owen's goalscoring ability.
But he returned to take revenge while Owen at the other end was seeing chance after chance go begging.
Having survived the initial barrage, Birmingham found themselves a goal down on 25 minutes thanks to a clumsy foul by Liverpool-born Bryan Hughes on the all action El-Hadji Diouf.
Up stepped Danny Murphy to send a curling free kick over the wall and in off the post.
Liverpool lost the injured Henchoz at half-time, and Emile Heskey came on and it didn't take long for Liverpool to put right some of the wastefulness of the first half when they grabbed their second with a sweeping, punishing attack on the break.
Diouf, playing despite only just returning from a trip to Senegal to see his stepfather who is dying of cancer, surged from his own half and with the defence backing away, he slipped the ball into Gerrard's path for the England midfield to drill home his shot off Vaesen's despairing dive.
However, on 61 minutes the Premiership's new boys did score. Stern John created the chance on the right after Traore's mistake, and Morrison hooked the ball past Dudek in the six-yard box.
Birmingham then made a triple substitution with Geoff Horsfield, Stan Lazaridis and Darren Carter taking over from Hughes, Damien Johnson and John.
It instantly caused them problems when Purse and then Martin Grainger had to go off for treatment, leaving their side twice down to 10 men as Liverpool pressed for the killer goal.
Liverpool put on Patrik Berger for Diouf, and virtually his first touch was a deflected shot that Vaesen needed to save smartly, as he did at Owen's feet a minute later. But Morrison was still to strike again, sending a lopping header into the top corner from Lazaridis' cross as Anfield was stunned into silence.
LIVERPOOL: Dudek, Carragher, Henchoz (Heskey 45), Hyypia, Traore, Murphy, Hamann, Gerrard, Riise (Diao 72), Owen, Diouf (Berger 80). Subs Not Used: Kirkland, Baros. Goals: Murphy 25, Gerrard 49.
BIRMINGHAM: Vaesen, Kenna, Cunningham, Purse, Grainger, Devlin, Savage, Hughes (Horsfield 74), Damien Johnson (Lazaridis 75), John (Carter 75), Morrison. Subs Not Used: Bennett, Eaden. Booked: Savage. Goals: Morrison 61, 90.
Referee: N Barry (N Lincolnshire).
