Kon-Tiki
Thor Heyerdahl set sail on the Kon-Tiki in 1947. He and a five-person crew left Peru on a hand-made raft and arrived in Polynesia over one hundred days later, on August 7, 1947. He proved that ancient mariners could have made long sea voyages to establish new colonies. He wrote The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas.