Bannister runs four-minute mile
May 6, 1954
On a grass track at Oxford, twenty-five-year-old medical student Roger Bannister finished four laps in three minutes fifty-nine point four seconds. A psychological barrier that doctors and athletes had said was impossible collapsed in under four minutes. Within six weeks an Australian had also done it. The impossible had become routine.
In context
Also in 1954 (5 other events on record)
- Dien Bien Phu falls to the Viet Minh · Southeast Asia · War
- Brown v. Board decision · North America · Politics
- Algerian War of Independence begins · Africa · War
- CIA overthrows Arbenz in Guatemala · North America · Politics
- First nuclear submarine launched · North America · Technology
Before and after in Europe
Before and after in Culture
Era
Modern Era (1901–2000), one of 590 events from that era on Saeculum.
Sources