King Harald V dead: Norway's monarch dies at 89

King Harald V of Norway, who went into exile in the United States as a child during the Nazi occupation of his homeland and refused a string of European noblewomen to marry his school sweetheart, died Friday. He was 89.

The palace said he died at the National Hospital in Oslo at 6:35 a.m.

Harald was Europe’s oldest monarch. The popular king modernized the royal house but refused to follow in the footsteps of other aging monarchs who have abdicated in recent times. His son automatically became King Haakon VIII.