Record Barrier Smashed 60 Years Ago

It was 60 years ago today that England's Roger Bannister broke the fabled 4-minute mile.

At the time it was strongly believed that it was humanly impossible for a man or woman to run a mile in less than four minutes. On May 6, 1954, Bannister proved the skeptics wrong on a track in Oxford, England, when he ran a mile in 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds.

The now 85-year old Bannister says "it was a target," as the previous world record of 4:01.04 had stood since 1945.

The current world record was set in 1999 at 3:43.13.