A Day That Shook The World: Roger Bannister breaks the four-minute mile

On 6 May 1954, Roger Bannister, a 25-year-old medical student at Oxford University, broke one of the enduring barriers of athletics - the elusive four-minute mile.

It had been though impossible - the previous record, 4 minutes and 1.3 seconds, had been set nine years previously - but Bannister, a committed amateur who only trained during breaks in his study, came through comfortably.

His time, 3 minutes 59.4 seconds, has since been beaten, but his achievement still stands as one of the great milestones of amateur sport.

Watch original footage of Banister's momentous run in this British Pathé video, above.