The table shows the year (first column) when the men's world record for the mile was broken this century, and the time in seconds for the mile (second column). For example, in 1933 the world record dropped from 4 minutes 9.2 seconds to 4 minutes 7.6 seconds. (This was set by Jack Lovelock of New Zealand, whose advice and training methods were used by Roger Bannister to run the first sub 4 minute mile in 1954.) Data taken from The World Almanac, 1986.