Olympics 1908
Lonon held the Olympics in the summer of 1908. A rare programme from the 1908 London Olympics has been unearthed during a house clearance in Surrey. Jeffrey Avery made the discovery while sorting through rubbish at the property in West Clandon near Guildford.
He said the programme was among a large amount of Olympic memorabilia and photographs stretching from 1908 through to the 1960s.
The programme contained an advert for Pears' soap and Robinson's Barley Water
"Such items are very rare and as such they have been copied, but from the limited images that I can access on such programmes this does appear to be ok."
Mr Avery said the house belonged to a professional body builder and close friend of Johnny Weissmuller - who won a total of five Olympic gold medals in swimming at the 1924 and 1928 Games.
After his swimming career Weissmuller became a movie star and, cast as Tarzan the Ape Man, he starred in 12 films. He died in 1984.
Sporting exhibition
Realising the significance of the find he contacted the chairman of the Maidenhead Heritage Centre and offered to loan the programme for its exhibition Our Sporting Life.
Mr Avery, whose business is based in Mitcham, south-west London, said: "He was so excited and I thought this is the time I should be keeping these things and letting other people see them so I agreed to let him borrow it for the exhibition."
Halleys Comet
Public perception of the comet was that in 1910: that the world was going to end with the comet. The anticipation of its arrival creates quite a stir. In some circles, the comet’s unusually close approach is seen as a sign of impending doom, a notion the down-market press does little to dispel.
Company’s such as Bird’s Custard and Pears’ Soap featured the comet in their advertising: ‘Pears’ soap is visible day and night all over the world’ was one slogan. Even before the comet was visible to the naked eye, people wrote to the Royal Observatory to report their sightings, which turned out to be misidentifications of the bright planets Venus and Jupiter and in one case the Andromeda Galaxy. They used the hysteria to their advantage.
1914-1918
On 28th June 1914, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, was shot and killed by Gavrilo Princip, a Serb terrorist, while visiting Sarajevo. The mood in Austria was already hostile towards Serbia, and now it turned towards war. The Austrians were certain that the Serbian government had been in some way involved in the murder, and while it is not certain how far that was true, the leader of the terrorists was also head of Serbian Intelligence. On 23 July, Austria delivered a note to the Serbia government that, if agreed to, would have almost ended Serbian independence. This was clearly intended to be refused, and in the most it was.
On 28 July 1914, Austria declared war on Serbia. Now the alliance system swung into play. On 30 July, Russia started mobilisation. In reaction, Germany declared war against Russia on 1 August. On the next day, Germany invaded Luxembourg, and demanded free passage across Belgium. On 3 August, Belgium refused the German demand, Germany declared war on France, and Britain pledged to support Belgium.
On 4 August a British ultimatum to Germany was refused, and Britain declared war on Germany, while Germany declared war on Belgium, and launched an invasion of Belgium. Finally, on 5 August Austria declared war on Russia, and the First World War had begun. 
Pears advertising has always moved with the times and cashed in on world events and the First World War was no different. Pears was able to use the nationalism and patriotism that comes from a war in order to sell more soap.
After the war there was a time of relative peace.
1923 during the Olympics
Punch Magazine was a humorous and satirical weekly magazine first published on July 17th 1841. Punch became a staple for British drawing rooms because of its sophisticated humour and absence of offensive material, especially when viewed against the satirical press of the time.
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