Is sixty years old!
Spotlight: Sixty years ago today, Thor Heyerdahl and five others set sail from Peru across the Pacific on a simple raft, in an attempt to prove that pre-Columbian South Americans could have settled Polynesia. The raft was called the Kon-Tiki; built of balsa wood, the boat successfully covered about 4,300 miles (6,900 kilometers), arriving at the Polynesian island of Raroia in 101 days. Heyerdahl's book about the voyage, Kon-Tiki, has been translated into more than 66 languages. The documentary made of the trip won an Oscar in 1951.
Quote: "Progress is man's ability to complicate simplicity."
(from answers.com)
First of all, I've read the book, it is fascinating, and mind-expanding. He actually did this another time and there is a whole museum dedicated to the kon-tiki expedition that is outside Oslo that I visited during my time as a European vagabond. They have the ships there - honestly, unbelievably cool stuff. Basically the idea is that he set out to prove that south americans could have settled in polynesia - and to prove this, he took off on a raft to replicate the experience. It's crazy, but awesome.
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