Google Doodle on Thor Heyerdahl
The latest Google Doodle is celebrating the 100th birth anniversary of ethnographer and adventurer Thor Heyerdahl. The Norwegian, most famous for his Kon-Tiki expedition in 1947, died at the age of 87 in 2002.
The expedition with a crew of five involved a journey of 8,000 km across the Pacific Ocean on a hand-built raft made of balsa wood. His objective was to prove that primitive natives living on the American continent, prior to the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, could have made the journey using basic materials available to them at the time.
The journey that took the adventurers from Peru towards French Polynesia landed them successfully in the Tuamoto Islands on August 7, 1947 after 101 days of sailing. The legendary journey inspired others to replicate the voyage.
Heyerdahl went on to immortalise his adventure in a book, The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas.
A documentary film in 1951 based on the Kon-Tiki expedition was honoured with an Academy Award. It was eventually remade into a feature film in Norway in 2012 earning the twin distinction of being both the costliest as well as the most lucrative film in the country's history. The film earned nominations for both the Academy and Golden Globe awards.
The expedition with a crew of five involved a journey of 8,000 km across the Pacific Ocean on a hand-built raft made of balsa wood. His objective was to prove that primitive natives living on the American continent, prior to the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, could have made the journey using basic materials available to them at the time.
The journey that took the adventurers from Peru towards French Polynesia landed them successfully in the Tuamoto Islands on August 7, 1947 after 101 days of sailing. The legendary journey inspired others to replicate the voyage.
Heyerdahl went on to immortalise his adventure in a book, The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas.
A documentary film in 1951 based on the Kon-Tiki expedition was honoured with an Academy Award. It was eventually remade into a feature film in Norway in 2012 earning the twin distinction of being both the costliest as well as the most lucrative film in the country's history. The film earned nominations for both the Academy and Golden Globe awards.
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