Photograph by Mark Kauffman

"There is no fuss and fanfare about Bannister. When he was asked to explain that first four-minute mile—and the art of record breaking—he answered with original directness: 'It's the ability to take more out of yourself than you've got.'"

Text by Gerald Holland
Issue Date: January 3, 1955

On May 6, 1954, Roger Bannister ran the first sub-four-minute mile in recorded history. The 25-year-old native of Harrow on the Hill, England, completed the distance in 3:59.4 at Oxford. At the end of the year, Bannister retired from running to pursue his medical studies full-time. He later became a neurologist.