19 January 2019

auto-da-fé

[aw-toh-duh-fey]

noun, plural au·tos-da-fé.

the public declaration of the judgment passed on persons tried in the courts of the Spanish Inquisition, followed by the execution by the civil authorities of the sentences imposed, especially the burning of condemned heretics at the stake.

Origin of auto-da-fé

1715–25; < Portuguese: act of the faith

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for auto-da-fe

Historical Examples of auto-da-fe

He saw the horizon of the future lurid with the flames of the auto da fe.
The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 3 (of 12)
Robert G. Ingersoll

It is doubtful if anything short of an auto da fe would have met their approval.
The Behavior of Crowds
Everett Dean Martin

Tezel, after his auto da fe at Frankfort on the Oder, had hastened to send his theses into Saxony.
History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century (Volume 1)
J. H. Merle D’Aubign

Men were living who had seen the horrors of the auto da fe and the splendors of viceregal authority.
Remember the Alamo
Amelia E. Barr

The roasting of a human victim at the auto da fe was a purely democratic institution.
Mexico and its Religion
Robert A. Wilson

Today’s quote

Capitalism has outlived its usefulness. It has brought about a system that takes necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes.

– Martin Luther King

On this day

19 January 1809 – birth of Edgar Allan Poe, American poet and novelist, The Raven. Died 7 October 1849.

19 January 1920 – Night of the Palmer Raids, in which more than 4,000 suspected radical leftists were arrested. Most were members of the Industrial Workers of the World union. Alexander Palmer was the United States Attorney-General. Most of those arrested were either deported or charged under the Espionage Act 1917 and the Sedition Act 1918.

19 January 1935 – birth of Johnny O’Keefe, Australian rock and roll legend. Known as J.O.K. or ‘The Wild One’. Died 6 October 1978.

19 January 1943 – birth of Janis Joplin. American singer song-writer. Died on 4 October 1970.

19 January 1966 – A UFO saucer nest is discovered near Tully, North Queensland, Australia when a banana farmer, George Pedley, claims that he saw a large, saucer-shaped object fly out of a swamp at Horseshoe Lagoon. He said the saucer was 25 feet wide and 9 feet high. Further investigation of the lagoon revealed that in a particularly reedy part, there was a large circle that was clear of reeds. The circle was 30 feet in diameter and the reeds had been flattened in a clockwise manner. Five other similar, but smaller, circles were discovered. Apart from the UFO claim, no other explanation could account for the circles. These are the first crop-circles discovered in the modern world.

This photo of the crop circle was taken by Emil Duran: