Born on June 30

Elsdon Best (1856-1931) was a New Zealand ethnographer and historian, a pioneer in the study of the Māori people. He recorded the traditions, beliefs, and knowledge of the Māori in landmark reference works.

Mongo Beti (1932-2001) was a Cameroonian writer and teacher, a major figure of anticolonial French-language African literature. A committed novelist and essayist, he denounced colonialism and then the excesses of postcolonial regimes.

Assia Djebar, whose real name was Fatima-Zohra Imalayen, was an Algerian novelist and filmmaker who wrote in French. A pioneer of North African women's literature, she gave voice to Algerian women through a body of work blending memory, History, and feminism. In 2005, she became the first North African woman elected to the Académie française.

Roger Blachon (1941-2008) was a French humorous cartoonist and illustrator. A virtuoso of sports drawings and crowd scenes, he contributed to many newspapers and magazines and received the Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême in 1993.

Tenzin Palmo, born Diane Perry in 1943 in London, is a Tibetan Buddhist nun of the Drukpa Kagyü school. She is famous for having spent twelve years on meditation retreat in a cave in the Himalayas, three of them in strict seclusion.

Michael Phelps is an American swimmer regarded as the greatest Olympian of all time. With 23 Olympic gold medals, he holds the all-time record for the most titles at the Olympic Games.