To the best of our recorded knowledge, nobody ran a 4-minute mile in the five millennia prior to Roger Bannister in May 1954[0], but more than 2,000 people have

To the best of our recorded knowledge, nobody ran a 4-minute mile in the five millennia prior to Roger Bannister in May 1954[0], but more than 2,000 people have met or exceeded this achievement since. In fact, his record stood only briefly, being bested the following month by John Landy. The moral of the story? People work in parallel on the same goals, they build on best practice, or sometimes just need to see something is possible (reusable rockets). Having achievements cluster like this is normal and expected. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four-minute_mile https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four-minute_mile