Earlier than there was digital simulation, there have been real-life adventurers who puzzled “what it?” Norwegian archaeologist Capt. Thor Heyerdahl was considered one of them, and when this Sept. 18, 1947 picture was taken, he and his six-man crew introduced the Kon-Tiki expedition to Papeete, Tahiti, Polynesia. Heyerdahl and his crew spent 101 days crossing the Pacific from Peru to Tahiti. Heyerdahl constructed this reproduction of the aboriginal balsa raft to check his theories that the traditional Peruvians reached Polynesia with this transport. (AP Photograph)
