Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: Today Google pays tribute to legendary Norwegian ethnographer and adventurer,Thor Heyerdahl on his 100th birth anniversary through an interactive doodle.
Thor Heyerdahl who was born in 1914, is well known for his famous Kon-Tiki expedition. He had sailed almost 8,000 km across the Pacific Ocean in a hand-built raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands in 1947. The expedition was designed to demonstrate that ancient people could have made long sea voyages, creating contacts between separate cultures.
In May 2011, the Thor Heyerdahl Archives were added to UNESCO’s “Memory of the World” Register. Heyerdahl's book about the expedition, The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By raft Across the South Seas, has been translated into 70 languages.
During his lifetime, various honours were bestowed on him, including the naming of asteroids, educational institutes and books among others. He also became an outspoken icon on environmental issues towards the latter stages of his life.
He died, aged 87, from a brain tumor.
