Nah, common misconception. Progress had been steady for decades, but was interrupted by WW2. There was one other person who did it a sub 4 minute a month and

Nah, common misconception. Progress had been steady for decades, but was interrupted by WW2. There was one other person who did it a sub 4 minute a month and a half after him, then 3 more people the next year. It was more down to improvement in training (Bannister was doing interval training, which was a new idea at the time).