Famous Birthdays on January 30

Celina Consuela Gabriella Carvajal, known professionally as Lena Hall, is an American actress and singer. She won the Tony Award for her performance as Yitzhak in the 2014 revival of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which also earned her a Grammy nomination for the musical's official album. She made history by becoming the first person to play both Hedwig and Yitzhak in the same production during the national tour of the musical in 2016. She originated the role of Nicola in the Broadway musical Kinky Boots. Her other Broadway credits include Cats, 42nd Street, Dracula, the Musical and Tarzan, the Musical. Hall has also starred in Off-Broadway productions such as Radiant Baby, Bedbugs!!!, Rooms: A Rock Romance, The Toxic Avenger, Prometheus Bound, Chix6, Little Shop of Horrors, and the 2017 original play How to Transcend a Happy Marriage.

Satya Narayana Goenka was an Indian teacher of vipassanā meditation. Born in Burma to an Indian family, he learnt Vipassana from Sayagyi U Ba Khin, retired from business in 1962 during business nationalization by military government in Burma, and moved to India in 1969 to start teaching Vipassana meditation. His teachings stay away from rites and rituals and emphasize that Buddha's path to liberation was non-sectarian, universal, and scientific in character, leading to Vipassana meditation appealing to people of all religions as well as no religion, from all parts of the world. He became an influential teacher and played an important role in establishing non-commercial Vipassana meditation centers globally where Vipassana Meditation is taught as a 10 Day residential program with no charges for food, stay as well as for teaching meditation, with centers funded by willful donations from past meditators. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 2012, an award given for distinguished service of high order.

Ameiz XLNC "Amen" Thompson is an American professional basketball player for the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played basketball for Pine Crest School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he was rated a five-star recruit by ESPN and won a state title. Thompson bypassed his senior year of high school to sign with OTE, where he played for two seasons and helped his team win the league title while earning All-OTE First Team honors in 2023. He was selected 4th overall in the 2023 NBA draft by the Houston Rockets. In 2024, he made the NBA All-Rookie Second Team, and in 2025 he was named to the NBA All-Defensive first team. He is the twin brother of basketball player Ausar Thompson.

Jack David Laugher is a British diver competing for Great Britain and England. A specialist on springboard, he competes in individual springboard events, and in synchronised events with Chris Mears, Daniel Goodfellow and Anthony Harding. Laugher and Mears became Britain's first diving Olympic champions by winning a gold medal in the men's synchronised 3m springboard event at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, an achievement many had expected double world 10m champion Tom Daley would achieve first. A week later, Laugher won a silver in the men's individual 3m springboard at the same Games, becoming the first British diver to win multiple Olympic diving medals at the same Games. As of 2024, this silver remans the highest placing by an individual British diver at the Olympic Games.

Jahvid Andre Best is an American track and field Olympian athlete, and former professional football running back. He was selected by the Detroit Lions in the first round of the 2010 NFL draft. He played college football for the California Golden Bears, setting several school records, including most all-purpose yards in a single season and most rushing yards in a single game. Best also led the Pac-10 in total rushing yards in 2008. Best competed in the 2016 Summer Olympics, representing Saint Lucia in track and field. He later became head football coach of the Saint Mary's College High School Panthers in Berkeley, California, for one season.

Christopher J. Simon was a Canadian professional ice hockey left winger who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) and Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). Known for his physical style of play and enforcer role, Simon played over 15 seasons in the NHL with teams including the Quebec Nordiques, Colorado Avalanche, Washington Capitals, Chicago Blackhawks, New York Rangers, Calgary Flames, New York Islanders, and Minnesota Wild. He was part of the 1996 Stanley Cup-winning Colorado Avalanche team. Simon was also known for his aggressive play, receiving eight suspensions throughout his NHL career, totaling 65 games. After leaving the NHL, he continued his career in the KHL before retiring from professional hockey in 2013.

Werner Hartmann was a German physicist who introduced microelectronics into East Germany. He studied physics at the Technische Hochschule Berlin and worked at Siemens before joining Fernseh GmbH. At the end of World War II, he and his research staff were flown to the Soviet Union to work on their atomic bomb project; he was assigned to Institute G. In 1955, he arrived in the German Democratic Republic (GDR); in the same year, he founded and became the director of the VEB Vakutronik Dresden, later VEB RFT Meßelektronik Dresden. In 1956, he completed his Habilitation at the Technische Hochschule Dresden and also became a professor for Kernphysikalische Elektronik there. In 1961, he founded the Arbeitsstelle für Molekularelektronik Dresden (AME). He was awarded the National Prize of GDR in 1958. In 1974, he was removed from his positions, significantly demoted, and sent to work as a staff scientist at the VEB Spurenmetalle Freiberg. Hartmann had been the object of security investigations by the Stasi for some time; while he was investigated at length and repeatedly interrogated, the alleged charges were politically motivated and no trial ever took place. The Werner-Hartmann-Preis für Chipdesign is an industrial award given in Hartmann's honor for achievement in the field of semiconductors.

Charles De Geer was an entomologist, industrialist, civil servant and book collector. He is sometimes referred to as Charles the Entomologist, to distinguish him from other relatives with the same name. Charles De Geer came from a prominent Swedish-Dutch family. Born in Sweden, he spent most of his childhood and youth in the Dutch Republic. At the age of 18 he moved back to Sweden and would spend the rest of his life there. Upon his return to Sweden, he took over the management of the ironworks of Lövstabruk. He was a successful businessman and with time became one of the richest men in Sweden, head of an early industry employing around 3,000 people. He had a successful civic career, became Marshal of the Court and was elevated to the rank of friherre (baron) in 1773.

Gisela Dulko is an Argentine former tennis player. Although she enjoyed modest success in singles, reaching a career-high ranking of world No. 26 and winning four WTA titles, her speciality was doubles, where she achieved the world No. 1 ranking and won 17 WTA titles. Partnering with Flavia Pennetta, Dulko won the 2010 WTA Tour Championships and the 2011 Australian Open. She also reached the mixed-doubles final at the 2011 US Open, with Eduardo Schwank. During her career, Dulko upset a number of top players on the tour, including Maria Sharapova in the second round of Wimbledon in 2009, Samantha Stosur in the third round of Roland Garros in 2011, and Martina Navratilova in the second round of Wimbledon in 2004 and in Navratilova's final Grand Slam singles match.

Sir William More, of Loseley, Surrey, was the son of Sir Christopher More. The great house at Loseley Park was built for him, which is still the residence of the More Molyneux family. Of Protestant sympathies, as Sheriff and Vice-Admiral of Surrey he was actively involved in local administration of the county of Surrey and in the enforcement of the Elizabethan religious settlement, and was a member of every Parliament during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. He was the owner of property in the Blackfriars in which the first and second Blackfriars theatres were erected. He has been described as "the perfect Elizabethan country gentleman" on account of his impeccable character and his assiduity and efficiency of service.

Hugh Joseph Tayfield was a South African international cricketer. He played 37 Test matches for South Africa between 1949 and 1960 and was one of the best off spinners the game has seen. He was the fastest South African to take 100 wickets in Tests until Dale Steyn claimed the record in March 2008. He was named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1956. He was known as 'Toey' due to his habit of stubbing his toes into the ground before every delivery. He would also kiss the badge on his cap before handing it to the umpire at the start of every over.

Frank Gelett Burgess was an American artist, art critic, poet, author and humorist. He was an important figure in the San Francisco Bay Area literary renaissance of the 1890s, particularly through his iconoclastic little magazine, The Lark, and association with The Crowd literary group. He is best known as a writer of nonsense verse, such as "The Purple Cow", and for introducing French modern art to the United States in an essay titled "The Wild Men of Paris." He was the illustrator of the Goops murals, in Coppa's restaurant, in the Montgomery Block and author of the popular Goops books. Burgess coined the term "blurb."

David Allen Johnson was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played as a second baseman from 1965 through 1978, most notably in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the Baltimore Orioles dynasty which won four American League pennants and two World Series championships between 1966 and 1971. Johnson played in MLB from 1965 to 1975, then played for two seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) before returning to play in MLB with the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs from 1977 to 1978. A three-time Rawlings Gold Glove Award winner, he was selected to four All-Star Game teams during his playing career.

Peter Courtland Agre is a Nobel Laureate American physician, molecular biologist, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and director of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute. In 2003, Agre and Roderick MacKinnon shared the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for "discoveries concerning channels in cell membranes." Agre was recognized for his discovery of aquaporin water channels. Aquaporins are water-channel proteins that move water molecules through the cell membrane. In 2009, Agre was elected president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and became active in science diplomacy.

Walter Savage Landor was an English writer, poet, and activist. His best known works were the prose Imaginary Conversations, and the poem "Rose Aylmer," but the critical acclaim he received from contemporary poets and reviewers was not matched by public popularity. As remarkable as his work was, it was equalled by his rumbustious character and lively temperament. Both his writing and political activism, such as his support for Lajos Kossuth and Giuseppe Garibaldi, were imbued with his passion for liberal and republican causes. He befriended and influenced the next generation of literary reformers such as Charles Dickens and Robert Browning.

Nathaniel Prentice Banks was an American politician from Massachusetts and a Union general during the Civil War. A millworker, Banks became prominent in local debating societies and entered politics as a young adult. Initially a member of the Democratic Party, Banks's abolitionist views drew him to the nascent Republican Party, through which he won election to the United States House of Representatives and as Governor of Massachusetts in the 1850s. At the start of the 34th Congress, he was elected Speaker of the House in an election that spanned a record 133 ballots taken over the course of two months.

Otto Wilhelm Rudolf Caracciola was a German racing driver. He won the European Drivers' Championship, the pre-1950 equivalent of the modern Formula One World Championship, an unsurpassed three times. He also won the European Hillclimbing Championship three times – twice in sports cars, and once in Grand Prix cars. Caracciola raced for Mercedes-Benz during their original dominating Silver Arrows period, named after the silver colour of the cars, and set speed records for the firm. He was affectionately dubbed Caratsch by the German public, and was known by the title of Regenmeister, or "Rainmaster", for his prowess in wet conditions.

Catharina Bernadetta Jacoba ("Tineke") Lagerberg is a retired Dutch swimmer who won the bronze medal in the 400 m freestyle at the 1960 Summer Olympics in a time of 4:56.9. She was also part of the Dutch team that broke the 4×100 m medley Olympic record in the preliminaries; however, they finished fourth in the final. Lagerberg broke the world record in the women's 200 m butterfly on 13 September 1958 in Naarden, Netherlands. She was also part of the Dutch relay team that set a new world record in the 4×100 m medley in the same year.

Mychal George Thompson is a Bahamian-American sports commentator and former professional basketball player. He was the first player born & raised in the Bahamas to make the NBA. The top overall pick in the 1978 NBA draft, Thompson played the center position for the University of Minnesota and center and power forward for the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers, San Antonio Spurs, and Los Angeles Lakers. Thompson won two NBA championships with the Lakers during their Showtime era in the 1980s. He is the father of basketball players Klay Thompson and Mychel Thompson, and baseball player Trayce Thompson.