Norway's King Harald V dies at 89 and his son becomes King Haakon VIII

King Harald V of Norway, Europe’s oldest monarch, died Friday at age 89, the palace said. He died at Oslo’s National Hospital at 6:35 a.m. His son automatically became King Haakon VIII. Harald, born in 1937 in Asker near Oslo, spent childhood years in the United States after his family fled Nazi-occupied Norway during World War II. He was crowned after King Olav V died in January 1991 and reigned through an oil-and-gas economic boom. Harald modernized the monarchy but did not abdicate like some European peers. In 1990, Norway changed its constitution so the eldest child—regardless of gender—can lead the succession.