12 October

1912: On 12 October 1912, Lewis Boss died.

Boss was an American astronomer best known for his compilation of two catalogues of stars. In 1895 Boss began to plan a general catalogue of stars, giving their positions and motions. After 1906, the project had support from the Carnegie Institution, Washington D.C. With an enlarged staff he observed the northern stars from the United States and the southern stars from Argentina. With the new data, he corrected catalogue that had been compiled in the past, and in 1910 he published the Preliminary General Catalogue of 6188 Stars for the Epoch 1900. The work unfinished upon his death was completed by his son Benjamin in 1937.

In 1882 he led an expedition to Chile to observe a transit of Venus.