Roger Bannister Signed: "The Four Minute Mile"

"However ordinary each of us may seem, we are all in some way special, and can do things that are extraordinary, perhaps until then…even thought impossible."  -Roger Bannister Roger Gilbert Bannister born March 23, 1929, in Harrow, Middlesex, England.  Bannister is considered the first man in history to run a mile in less than four minutes, a feat that was considered impossible in 1954.While a student at the University of Oxford and at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School, London, Bannister, a competitive runner, broke the four-minute barrier with a time of 3 minutes 59.4 seconds in a dual meet at Oxford on May 6, 1954. Breaking the world record, held for nine years by Gunder Hagg of Sweden, was almost incidental to his successful defiance of the "psychological" barrier, the general belief in the impossibility of running a mile in less than four minutes. Bannister is said to have achieved this through scientific training methods and thorough research into the mechanics of running. He re