First among the Forbes.com list of 20 greatest individual athletic achievements is Roger Bannister’s four-minute mile on this date in 1954.
In 1954 it seemed unlikely–maybe even impossible–that anyone could run a mile in less than four minutes. Several runners had come close–Sweden’s Gunder Haess had run the mile in four minutes and 1.4 seconds nine years previously–but no one could break through the four-minute barrier. People began to believe that it couldn’t be done. Until Britain’s Roger Bannister, that is. Competing at Oxford’s Iffley Road track on May 6, 1954, the 25-year-old medical student wowed some 3,000 spectators when he crossed the finish line in three minutes and 59.4 seconds. Once the psychological barrier had been broken, mile times kept falling. Bannister’s record stood a scant six weeks before John Landy of Australia ran the mile in three minutes and 58 seconds. The current world record is three minutes and 43.1 seconds.
USATODAY.com brought us up to date on Bannister two years ago on the 50th anniversary of his famous race:
Bannister’s is the story of a well-lived life. He is as proud of his distinguished medical and academic careers as he is of those celebrated four minutes, less six-tenths of a second. Bannister’s second act in a distinctly British life is in some respects as astonishing as his athletic feats: neurologist, author, and master of Pembroke College, one of 30 colleges that make up his beloved Oxford University.