A vintage car with U.S. flags drives by the U.S. embassy in Havana. The United States and Cuba formally resumed diplomatic relations, as the Cuban flag was raised at the U.S. State Department in a historic gesture toward ending decades of hostility between the Cold War foes.

Known as the Garden of Eden in the desert, the Havasupai Reservation is not only home to the Grand Canyon area's indigenous Native American tribe, but it is home to the reservations crowning glory - the Havasu Falls. As one of the most famous and beautiful waterfalls in the world, the waterfall attracts almost as much interest as the rim of the Grand Canyon. Helicopter and horse tours to the village of Havasupai are all popular and easy ways to visit. However, the real hikers will want to make the challenging trek that travels through the barren desert and baking sun on the 10-mile Havasupai Trail from Hualapai Hilltop.

The beautiful landscapes of southern Bavaria, Germany, Europe. By Johannes Heuckeroth.

The tiny board, made from fossil ivory and ebony, flips up on wincy hinges to reveal 32 minuscule chess pieces. The ring itself is sterling silver, and there's only one of them, made by Arduosity, who notes "I can tell you it is impossible, near impossible to set up."

A worthwhile Amazon purchase

The Tungurahua volcano spews fumes and lava in Huambalo, Ecuador, Feb. 27, 2016.

The Aleutian Islands are a chain of 14 large volcanic islands and 55 smaller ones belonging to both the United States and Russia. Photo by Chris Burkard, and more great shots are at the source included.

The National Center for Health Statistics reports the average life expectancy in the United States is 77.9 years. According to the CDC, the leading causes of death in the United States are (in descending order) heath disease, cancer, stroke, chronic lower respiratory diseases, accidents, Alzheimer's disease and diabetes. There are so many ways to die early. What follows is a list of activities, from the ordinary to the extraordinary, and your chances of dying from them.

A visitor holds an umbrella in a lavender field in Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning province

Have you ever watched a lightning storm in awe? Join the crowd. Oddly, nobody knows exactly how lightning is produced. What is known is that charges slowly separate in some clouds causing rapid electrical discharges (lightning), but how electrical charges get separated in clouds remains a topic of much research. Lightning usually takes a jagged course, rapidly heating a thin column of air to about three times the surface temperature of the Sun. The resulting shock wave starts supersonically and decays into the loud sound known as thunder.

A bridge collapse caused a train to fall into a canal Thursday,July 2 killing 12 Pakistani solders.

Taken with Canon 6D. 17-40 f/4, settings: 1/60s, f/9, ISO100

We quietly approached the mother and baby humpback whale keeping to the surface, yet making our presence aware to the mother. This is a baby humpback whale calf that was approximately 1 week old. As with most babies, this creature was curious. I could not help but wave and smile at the newborn whale almost three times my length. Its curiosity got the better of it, and emerging from under it's mother's fin it swam towards me, approaching less than 30 centimeters from my face.

Photo by Denis Budkov