Sir Roger Bannister celebrates 60th anniversary of his first sub-four-minute mile

Sixty years ago today, a young English medical student stepped up to the starting line of a cinder track in Oxford. Three minutes, 59.4 seconds later, Roger Bannister landed himself a place in history.

"It was a target," Bannister, now 85 and coping with Parkinson's, told The Associated Press in an interview. "There was this magic about four symmetrical laps of one minute each. I think it still remains something that is of interest and intrigue."

Before Bannister's historic run, racing under four minutes in the mile was thought to be a physical impossibility — although there were plenty of men besides the young Brit who were also trying to disprove that theory. But on a rainy day in May of 1954, Bannister, led by his pacers Chris Brasher and Chris Chataway, cracked under four minutes first.

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While hundreds of athletes have since broken through the barrier (Morocco's Hicham El Guerrouj set the current record of 3:43.13 in 1999), Bannister's accomplishment remains part of track and field's classic lore. He recently published his autobiography, Twin Tracks, because "there may be biographies written, and I think I'd rather like to tell it myself," Bannister told the AP.

Below, images from the day a young man proved what was thought to be impossible was actually within reach. --Sarah Eberspacher