photo #8271965

On this day in 1947, Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl came ashore in French Polynesia. He'd sailed all the way across the Pacific, setting out from Peru by himself on a 4,300-mile journey — in a homemade raft made only with balsa logs and hemp rope. Heyerdahl's intent was to prove that pre-Columbian South Americans could have made this same journey using their own primitive seafaring technology several centuries before, allowing them to spread their culture to the remote islands of the Pacific. After 101 days alone at sea, Heyerdahl completed his so-called Kon-Tiki expedition, leaving the world in awe.