Date in year · 1947 · The 1940s

August 7, 1947

On August 7, 1947, thor Heyerdahl's balsa wood raft, the Kon-Tiki, smashes into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands after a 101-day, 7,000 kilometres (4,300 mi) journey across the Pacific Ocean in an attempt to prove that pre-historic peoples could have traveled from South America. Moses Blah, Jerzy Stuhr, James Woods would arrive in the same year.

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1947

1940s

Featured · August 7, 1947

Thor Heyerdahl's balsa wood raft, the Kon-Tiki, smashes into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands after a 101-day, 7,000 kilometres (4,300 mi) journey across the Pacific Ocean in an attempt to prove that pre-historic peoples could have traveled from South America.

Thor Heyerdahl KStJ was a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer with a background in biology with specialization in zoology, botany and geography.

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Around 1947

The year in brief

1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1947th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 947th year of the 2nd millennium, the 47th year of the 20th century, and the 8th year of the 1940s decade.

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What happened

On August 7, 1947

  1. 1947 Thor Heyerdahl's balsa wood raft, the Kon-Tiki, smashes into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands after a 101-day, 7,000 kilometres (4,300 mi) journey across the Pacific Ocean in an attempt to prove that pre-historic peoples could have traveled from South America.

    Norwegian anthropologist and adventurer (1914–2002)

    Thor Heyerdahl KStJ was a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer with a background in biology with specialization in zoology, botany and geography.

  2. 1947 The Bombay Municipal Corporation formally takes over the Bombay Electric Supply and Transport (BEST).

    Administrative body for the city of Mumbai

    The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is the governing civic body of Mumbai, the capital city of Maharashtra.

Elsewhere that year

Other moments from 1947

The class of 1947

Others born in 1947

Moses Blah 1947– Liberian general and politician, 23rd President of Liberia (died 2013)
Jerzy Stuhr 1947– Polish actor, director, and screenwriter (died 2024)
James Woods 1947– American actor and producer
John Blackman 1947– Australian radio and television presenter (died 2024)
Claudia J. Kennedy 1947– American general
Salih Neftçi 1947– Turkish economist and author (died 2009)

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