On 6 May 1954, on a cold, windy evening at the Iffley Road track in Oxford, the 25-year-old medical student Roger Bannister ran a mile in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds, the first person to do so, paced by his friends Chris Brasher and Chris Chataway. The four-minute barrier had been considered by many to be a physical limit. His record lasted only 46 days: John Landy ran 3:57.9 in Finland on 21 June, and within three years sixteen runners had broken four minutes. Bannister went on to become a neurologist. The current record is 3:43.13, set by Hicham El Guerrouj in 1999.
Before and after
- 26 February 1954Birth of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
- 4 March 1954Birth of François Fillon
- 7 April 1954Birth of Jackie Chan
- 1 May 1954Origins of Unification Church
- 6 May 1954Roger Bannister runs the first sub-four-minute mile
- 8 May 1954Founding of Asian Football Confederation
- from 15 May 1954 to 31 July 2012Founding of Latin Union
- 7 June 1954Death of Alan Turing
- 15 June 1954Founding of Union of European Football Associations
More in Society, economy & sport
- 1945Founding of International Court of Justice
- 24 October 1945Founding of United Nations Security Council
- 27 December 1945Founding of World Bank
- 14 September 1960Founding of Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
- 8 December 1991Founding of Commonwealth of Independent States
- 4 February 2004Founding of Facebook
The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.