...the attempt. Thus, when I got up from the track after collapsing at the finish line, I figured I was dead." - Roger Bannister, After becoming first person to break four-minute mile, 1952.

...War II some 15,000 Americans and Filipinos on Corregidor surrendered to the Japanese. In 1954, medical student Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile during a track meet in Oxford, England, in 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds. In 1960, Britain's...