Today's highlight May 6, 1954: Medical student Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile during a track meet in Oxford, England, in 3:59.4. On this date 1527: Unpaid troops loyal to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V attacked Rome, forcing Pope Clement VII to flee to safety; some scholars mark the ensuing sack of the city as the end of the Renaissance in Italy. 1882: President Chester Alan Arthur signed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which barred Chinese immigrants from the U.S. for 10 years (Arthur had opposed an earlier version with a 20-year ban). 1910: Britain's Edwardian era ended with the death of King Edward VII; he was succeeded by George V.