Four-minute mile

[11] On 21 June 1954, at an international meet at Turku, Finland, Australia's John Landy became the second man, after Bannister, to achieve a sub-four-minute mile.

[12] Two months later, on 7 August, during the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games hosted in Vancouver, B.C., Landy and Bannister both ran the distance of one mile in under four minutes.

In 1964, America's Jim Ryun became the first high-school runner to break four minutes for the mile, running 3:59.0 as a junior and a then American record 3:55.3 as a senior in 1965.

[14] Tim Danielson (1966) and Marty Liquori (1967) also came in under four minutes, but Ryun's high-school record stood until Alan Webb ran 3:53.43 in 2001.

On 6 February 2016, Andrew Hunter significantly improved upon Webb's mark, running 3:58.25 on the same New York Armory track[18] and 3:57.81 two weeks later.

[20] Reed Brown dipped under the barrier on 1 June 2017, running the 4th fastest high school mile time ever recorded in a race: 3:59.30.

The women's world record is currently at 4:07.64, set by Faith Kipyegon of Kenya at the Diamond League meeting in Monaco on 21 July 2023.

Some (notably Olympic medallist Peter Radford)[34] contend the first successful four-minute mile was run by James Parrott on 9 May 1770.

"[37] On 10 October 1796, The Sporting Magazine reported that a young man called Weller, who was one of three brothers, "undertook for a wager of three guineas to run one mile on the Banbury Road, in four minutes, which he performed two seconds within the time.

[41] During his time as a Pawnee runner, Big Hawk Chief possibly became the first person documented to run a sub-four-minute mile.

The details of the event, as chronicled by Army Officer, Captain Luther North, clocked the mile at 3 minutes and 58 seconds.

65 of Science Fiction Theatre entitled "Three Minute Mile", a scientist (Marshall Thompson) attempts to create a super athlete (Martin Milner).

In the 1971 film The Omega Man, protagonist Robert Neville, as played by Charlton Heston, claims to have run a mile in 3 minutes and 50 seconds.

[48] In 2005, ESPN released a television adaptation of the event called "Four Minutes" featuring Jamie Maclachlan as Roger Bannister and Christopher Plummer as his wheelchair-using coach, Archie Mason.

In June 2011, the watch used to time the original event was donated by Jeffrey Archer to a charity auction for Oxford University Athletics Club; it sold for £97,250.