You are right about random strangers on the street, but Wikipedia's official policy is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Notability_(people)

Within Wikipedia, notability is an inclusion criterion based on the encyclopedic suitability of an article topic. The topic of an article should be notable, or "worthy of notice"; that is, "significant, interesting, or unusual enough to deserve attention or to be recorded". Notable in the sense of being "famous", or "popular", although not irrelevant, is secondary.

So it's not all about being famous.