Ex: Atlanta is "Martin Luther King Jr". It's a great pick if you're going for "internationally recognized". But it's not a great pick for "famous" (at least in my opinion).
Just off the top of my head, more valid alternatives might have been:
- Kanye West
- Spike Lee
- Jeff Foxworthy
- Pat Conroy
- Julia Roberts
And Julia Roberts wasn't born in Atlanta; she shows up in the Atlanta suburb of Smyrna, where she was born.
Besides that, though, MLK is certainly more famous than anyone you listed. Not even close.
You're saying that we should be defining famous as "known far and wide" - which is fine, but that makes "what would a foreigner recognize" a great fit for the pick.
I'm rebutting the idea that this is limited to non-western countries - It's not. If you want a pick who people from a location would identify with more as a local... this data isn't that: every person on my list is in my news much more often than MLK jr.