The stuff of which legends are made

•On Sept. 2, 1666, the Great Fire of London breaks out in the house of King Charles II’s baker. When the fire finally was extinguished four days later, it had engulfed 13,000 houses and nearly 90 churches. An estimated 100,000 people were left homeless. Miraculously, only 16 people were known to have died.

•On Sept. 3, 1777, the American flag is flown in battle for the first time, during a Revolutionary War skirmish at Cooch’s Bridge in Maryland. According to legend, Philadelphia seamstress Betsy Ross designed the new canton for the Stars and Stripes, which consisted of a circle of 13 stars and a blue background, at the request of Gen. George Washington. Historians have been unable to conclusively prove or disprove this legend.

•On Aug. 31, 1899, a Stanley Steamer, driven by F.O. Stanley, becomes the first car to reach the 6,288-foot summit of Mount Washington, N.H. The steam-powered cars not only climbed mountains, but often beat larger, gasoline-powered cars in races.

•On Aug. 29, 1949, at a remote test site at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan, the USSR successfully detonates its first atomic bomb, code name “First Lightning.” According to legend, the Soviet physicists who worked on the bomb would have been executed by the Soviet government if the bomb had failed to detonate.

•On Sept. 1, 1959, Elizabeth Taylor signs with 20th Century Fox to make “Cleopatra” for a salary of $1 million. By the time she was 10, Taylor had signed with MGM and made her first picture, “There’s One Born Every Minute.”

•On Aug. 30, 1980, Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” enters the charts. The song would eventually reach No. 1 and become an American classic.

•On Aug. 28, 1996, after four years of separation, Charles, Prince of Wales and heir to the British throne, and his wife, Princess Diana, formally divorce.