October 26 Holidays

Austrian National Day marks October 26, 1955, when the Austrian Parliament passed the Constitutional Law on Neutrality — declaring Austria permanently neutral and free of foreign military forces one week after the last Soviet and Allied troops departed. National Chicken Fried Steak Day celebrates the battered and deep-fried beef steak — a Texas diner staple whose name is derived from the chicken-frying technique applied to a tenderized cube steak — served with cream gravy in quantities sufficient to constitute a geological formation. National Day of the Deployed was established to honor military service members currently deployed overseas — separated from their families, operating in dangerous conditions, and performing missions that most civilians will never fully know. National Mule Day celebrates the hybrid offspring of a horse and a donkey — an animal whose strength, endurance, and disease resistance made it indispensable to American agriculture, mining, and military operations for two centuries. Neutral since 1955, a battered steak, a distant service member, and a very durable animal.