American president from 1909-1913. Also served as Governer-General of the Philippines from 1901-1903 (they named an avenue after him), and Chief Justice of the United States from 1921-1930. New Mexico and Arizona became states during his Presidency.
https://github.com/davepinch/pinchy.cc/blob/master/content/sites/allthetropes.org/wiki/William_Howard_Taft.md
The constellation’s brightest star, second-magnitude Alpha Pavonis, is called Peacock, a name given in or around 1937 by the UK’s Nautical Almanac Office for use in The Air Almanac, a navigation guide produced for the Royal Air Force. The RAF specified that all navigation stars should have proper names, so this name was coined for the otherwise unnamed Alpha Pavonis.