William Randolph Hearst Sr. (/hɜːrst/;[1] April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation’s largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboyant methods of yellow journalism influenced the nation’s popular media by emphasizing sensationalism and human interest stories. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887 with Mitchell Trubitt after being given control of The San Francisco Examiner by his wealthy father, Senator George Hearst.

After moving to New York City, Hearst acquired the New York Journal and fought a bitter circulation war with Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World. Hearst sold papers by printing giant headlines over lurid stories featuring crime, corruption, sex, and innuendos. Hearst acquired more newspapers and created a chain that numbered nearly 30 papers in major American cities at its peak. He later expanded to magazines, creating the largest newspaper and magazine business in the world. Hearst controlled the editorial positions and coverage of political news in all his papers and magazines, and thereby often published his personal views. He sensationalized Spanish atrocities in Cuba while calling for war in 1898 against Spain. Historians, however, reject his subsequent claims to have started the war with Spain as overly extravagant.

He was twice elected as a Democrat to the U.S. House of Representatives. He ran unsuccessfully for President of the United States in 1904, Mayor of New York City in 1905 and 1909, and for Governor of New York in 1906. During his political career, he espoused views generally associated with the left wing of the Progressive Movement, claiming to speak on behalf of the working class.
After 1918 and the end of World War I, Hearst gradually began adopting more conservative views and started promoting an isolationist foreign policy to avoid any more entanglement in what he regarded as corrupt European affairs. He was at once a militant nationalist, a staunch anti-communist after the Russian Revolution, and deeply suspicious of the League of Nations and of the British, French, Japanese, and Russians.[2] Following Hitler’s rise to power, Hearst became a supporter of the Nazi Party, ordering his journalists to publish favourable coverage of Nazi Germany, and allowing leading Nazis to publish articles in his newspapers.[3] He was a leading supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932–1934, but then broke with FDR and became his most prominent enemy on the right. Hearst’s publication reached a peak circulation of 20 million readers a day in the mid-1930s. He poorly managed finances and was so deeply in debt during the Great Depression that most of his assets had to be liquidated in the late 1930s. Hearst managed to keep his newspapers and magazines.
His life story was the main inspiration for Charles Foster Kane, the lead character in Orson Welles’ film Citizen Kane (1941).[4] His Hearst Castle, constructed on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean near San Simeon, has been preserved as a State Historical Monument and is designated as a National Historic Landmark.

 

The Lone Cypress is a Monterey cypress tree located in Pebble Beach, California. Standing atop a granite headland overlooking Carmel Bay, the tree has become a Western icon and has been called one of the most photographed trees in North America.

History
Early history
The tree is believed to have been seeded circa 1750 in what was then the Spanish colony of New Spain. However, due to the invasive nature of traditional dendrochronology, the precise age of the tree is unknown and can only be inferred.

Over the centuries the tree has been weathered by the wind and salt spray coming off the Pacific Ocean, gradually altering its appearance. The earliest known depictions of the tree’s likeness in paintings and photographs date to the 1880s, which shows the tree with a lush dome-shaped canopy.
20th century
In 1941, a stone retaining wall was constructed around the base of the tree to protect its roots from erosion.
In 1948, a series of cables were installed to help support the tree.
In 1969, the tree was fenced off to the public in order to protect its roots from being damaged from trampling.
In 1984, an unknown arsonist attempted to set fire to the tree. The tree survived with only minor fire scarring.
21st century
On February 16, 2019, the tree lost one of its limbs during a severe weather event known as a Pineapple Express. This dramatically altered its appearance.
Future
The future longevity of the tree is unknown. The longest-lived Monterey cypress based on physical evidence lived to only 284 years old.

Geography
The tree is located off 17-Mile Drive between Cypress Point Club and the Pebble Beach Golf Links, two of world’s best-known golf courses.
The Monterey cypress grows naturally only in Pebble Beach and Point Lobos.

Trademark
A drawing of the tree was registered as Pebble Beach Company’s trademark in 1919. The company said the trademark protected not only the logo but also the tree itself.

 

 
Elephant seals or sea elephants are very large, oceangoing earless seals in the genus Mirounga. Both species, the northern elephant seal (M. angustirostris) and the southern elephant seal (M. leonina), were hunted to the brink of extinction for oil by the end of the 19th century, but their numbers have since recovered. They are the largest extant carnivorans, weighing up to 4,000 kilograms (8,800 lb). Despite their name, elephant seals are not closely related to elephants, and the large proboscis or trunk that males have was convergently evolved.

Seeing elephant seals in the wild is a truly remarkable experience, and coastal viewpoints in California offer breathtaking sights of this species that you won’t want to miss. As you watch these large, blubbery mammals interact in their natural habitat, the experience is made even more special knowing that you are witnessing a conservation success story. 
Northern elephant seals were hunted to the brink of extinction by the end of the 19th century. After decades of being slaughtered for their blubber, which people used for lamp oil during that time, only an estimated 100 animals remained on one small island off the coast of Mexico. Mexico and the United States declared protections for this species, and northern elephant seals rebounded in a big way—there are an estimated 150,000 – 200,000 individuals today, and the population continues to grow every year. 
This species is found in the North Pacific, ranging from Baja California, Mexico, to the Gulf of Alaska and Aleutian Islands. Elephant seals spend the vast majority of their time—about nine months of the year—in the open ocean, only coming to shore twice each year to breed and molt. 
They have one of the longest migrations of any mammal in the world, traveling up to 13,000 miles each year from shore to their feeding grounds in the northern Pacific Ocean. During their biannual migrations at sea, northern elephant seals forage for bottom-dwelling creatures and dive up to depths over 5,000 feet (that’s equal to four Empire State Buildings!). 
While there are peak seasons between December and June when most elephant seals haul out, or temporarily leave the water, you can see elephant seals year-round in California on their breeding beaches, called rookeries. But with so much of their lives spent underwater up to 5,000 miles offshore, how is it that elephant seals can be spotted on the beach during any season?  
Male and female elephant seals swim to and from the rookery beaches in phases, depending on where they are in their life cycle. This means that depending on when you venture out to an elephant seal overlook, you might be able to spot 4,500-pound male seals fighting for dominance, expectant mothers coming ashore to give birth, or young pups learning to swim.  
Whether you visit an elephant seal viewing point or tune in to our live beach webcam, you can watch wild seals ashore and observe their fascinating natural behaviors. Follow the incredible life journey of this species in the timeline below, find out when and where to see elephant seals in California, and learn how you can help protect these animals.