Malietoa Tanumafili II

King Malietoa Tanumafili II of American Samoa passed away at a hospital in Samoa. The long-serving Samoan monarch died at the age of 94. He sat at the Samoan throne ever since the country gained independence from New Zealand in 1962. That made him the world's third longest reining living monarch after Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej who has reigned since 1946 and Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, who ascended to the throne in 1952.