The U.S. Navy sailor pictured in an iconic kiss during a celebration commemorating the end of World War II has died at the age of 95. George Mendonsa died on Sunday after suffering from congestive heart failure at an assisted living facility in Middletown, R.I., his daughter, Sharon Molleur, told NBC News. ADVERTISEMENT Photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt captured an intimate moment between Mendonsa and Greta Zimmer Friedman on April 14, 1945, the day Japan surrendered to the U.S., during a Times Square event celebrating World War II's conclusion. The photo, published in Life magazine as a scene from "V-J Day in Times Square," has since become one of the most famous photographs of American history. NBC News noted that Mendonsa maintained for years that he was the sailor in the iconic photo. Lawrence Verria and George Galdorisi were able to verify the retired fisherman's presence in the photo using facial recognition technology, according to NBC News. Mendonsa told the authors that the announcement that World War II was over came as he was on leave in New York. He said that he was so overcome with emotion that he grabbed a young nurse and kissed her, NBC News noted. Like Mendonsa, it was unclear for years that Friedman was the young nurse in the photo. Friedman died in 2016 at age 92. "He was very proud of his service and the picture and what it stood for," Molleur said. "Always, for many, many years later, it was an important part of his life."<doc-sep>George Mendonsa, the ecstatic sailor shown kissing a woman in Times Square celebrating the end of World War II, has died. He was 95. Mendonsa fell and had a seizure on Sunday at the assisted living facility in Middletown, Rhode Island, where he lived with his wife of 70 years, his daughter, Sharon Molleur, told The Providence Journal. Mendonsa was shown kissing Greta Zimmer Friedman, a dental assistant in a nurse’s uniform, on August 14, 1945 - known as V-J Day, the day Japan surrendered to the United States. People spilled into the New York City streets to celebrate the news. Mendonsa planted a kiss on Friedman, whom he had never met. An iconic photo of the kiss by Alfred Eisenstaedt was first published in Life magazine and is called "V-J Day in Times Square," but is known to most as "The Kiss." It became one of the most famous photographs of the 20th century.<doc-sep>The American sailor famously photographed kissing a stranger in New York’s Times Square to celebrate the end of World War Two on VJ Day has died at the age of 95. The picture of George Mendonsa bending over and kissing 21-year-old Greta Zimmer Friedman became one of the most iconic images of the period. “It’s probably the most popular photo that Life ever published,” a photo editor for the magazine’s company told CNN. Mendonsa’s daughter, Sharon Molleu, told the Providence Journal that her father fell and had a seizure early on February 17th at the assisted living facility in Middletown, Rhode Island, where he lived with his wife of 70 years. He died just two days before his 96th birthday. George Mendonsa was born on February 19, 1923, in Newport; his parents were immigrants from Portugal. His father was a fisherman, and George dropped out of high school before he enlisted in the Navy in 1942. He served as a quartermaster on USS The Sullivans, a destroyer in the Pacific. According to the New York Times, “He was steering the ship in 1945 when an aircraft carrier was struck by kamikaze fighters, and he had to help more than 100 American sailors floating in the water reach a nearby hospital ship, where he saw nurses caring for the badly wounded.” “I believe from that day on I had a soft spot for nurses,” Mendonsa said in an interview in 2005. On August 14, 1945, World War II was declared won in the United States as news of the Japanese surrender spread. Thousands of people flooded New York City’s Times Square, including Mendonsa, who was on leave, and a 21-year-old nurse named Greta Zimmer Friedman. Related Video: 15 surprising facts about WW2 you might not have known: https://youtu.be/2CAi4g1r2Wk “I saw a nurse,” Mendonsa said later. “It was just instinct, I guess. I went and I grabbed her.” Also on the spot was Life photographer Alfred Eisenstadt, who was scrambling to capture the joy that seized the city. The photographer described how he watched the sailor running along the street, grabbing any girl in sight. “I was running ahead of him with my Leica looking back over my shoulder but none of the pictures that were possible pleased me,” he wrote in the book Eisenstadt on Eisenstadt. “Then suddenly, in a flash, I saw something white being grabbed. I turned around and clicked the moment the sailor kissed the nurse. If she had been dressed in a dark dress, I would never have taken the picture.” Friedman, who at the time was working as a dental assistant, said she had not been aware of the existence of the photo until the 1960s. “It wasn’t much of a kiss,” she later recalled. “It was just somebody celebrating. It wasn’t a romantic event. It was his jubilance that he didn’t have to go back.” The photographer, in the chaos of the moment, did not get the names of the couple in his photograph. Many different people have claimed to be both the man and the woman kissing, but it is believed that Mendonsa and Friedman were the two in question. Mendonsa’s new girlfriend, Rita Petry, supposedly saw the kiss happen but said later she did not mind. They married in 1946, after Mendonsa was discharged, and he returned to professional fishing. Read another story from us: The surprising truth behind the classic V-J Day photo of a sailor passionately embracing a nurse Although some have criticized the photo in recent years as showing an assault, Friedman disagreed. She told The Navy Times in 2012 that the day was so momentous that she empathized with Mendonsa’s excitement. “I can’t think of anybody who considered that as an assault,” she said. “It was a happy event.”<doc-sep>The man in the iconic photo of an exuberant Navy sailor kissing a woman in New York City's Times Square at the end of World War II has died. George Mendonsa, 95, had a seizure and fell in an assisted living facility in Middletown, Rhode Island, his daughter, Sharon Molleur, told the Providence Journal. He lived there with his wife of 70 years, Rita, and died Sunday, two days short of his 96th birthday. The photo was taken Aug. 14, 1945, which is known as V-J Day, the day Japan officially surrendered to the United States in World War II. Published in Life magazine as "V-J Day in Times Square," it came to represent how joyful Americans and people across the world felt at the end of the war, in which 406,000 Americans died and 671,000 were wounded, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Other commemorations of V-J Day mark Sept. 2, 1945, the Japan formally surrendered to Allied forces. Start the day smarter:Get USA TODAY's Daily Briefing in your inbox More:Woman in iconic WWII Times Square kissing photo dies When photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt snapped the picture in 1945, he did not document any information about the photo's subjects, and their identities were a mystery for years. Even today, people have used everything from 3D face scanning to the position of the sun in the photo to try to determine exactly whom the couple was. Mendonsa kissed dental assistant Greta Zimmer Friedman, mistakenly thinking she was a nurse in the war because of her uniform. She came to represent the 342,000 women the Census Bureau says served in the war as pilots, nurses and more. Friedman reached out to Life in the 1960s after seeing the photo in a book of Eisenstaedt's photography to notify the magazine it was her in the picture. The magazine told her it was another woman until 1980 when representatives contacted her and she met with Eisenstaedt, according to an interview with the Library of Congress. Mendonsa's identity was verified by a 2012 book titled "The Kissing Sailor: The Mystery Behind the Photo That Ended World War II," although some are still skeptical. Friedman died in 2016 at 92 years old after a struggle with pneumonia. She was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with her husband. Contributing: The Associated Press<doc-sep>
Providence, R.I. — The ecstatic sailor shown kissing a woman in Times Square celebrating the end of World War II has died. George Mendonsa was 95. Mendonsa's daughter, Sharon Molleur, told The Providence Journal Mendonsa fell and had a seizure Sunday at the assisted living facility in Middletown, Rhode Island, where he lived with his wife of 70 years. In this Aug. 14, 1945 file photo provided by the U.S. Navy, a sailor and a woman kiss in New York's Times Square, as people celebrate the end of World War II. Victor Jorgensen / AP Mendonsa was shown kissing Greta Zimmer Friedman, a dental assistant in a nurse's uniform, on Aug. 14, 1945. Known as V-J Day, it was the day Japan surrendered to the United States. The photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt became one of the most famous photographs of the 20th century. It was years before Mendonsa and Friedman were confirmed to be the couple. Friedman died in 2016 at age 92. Mendonsa died two days before his 96th birthday. "It was the moment that you come back from the Pacific, and finally the war ends," Mendonsa told CBS News' Michelle Miller in 2012. George Mendonsa and Greta Friedman at scene of classic photo taken by George Eisenstaedt in Times Square on VJ Day in 1945, as Japan's surrender was being cleebrated CBS "I did not see him approaching, and before I know it I was in this vice grip," Friedman said. But Mendonsa said he didn't kiss her for long. As the perfect strangers locked lips, world famous photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt snapped four pictures in just 10 seconds. CBS News reunited George and Greta in 2012 at the spot of their kiss for just the second time since that day in 1945. "The excitement of the war bein' over, plus I had a few drinks," Mendonsa said. "So when I saw the nurse I grabbed her, and I kissed her." But they weren't the only ones claiming credit. For more than 30 years, others claimed to be the ones in the photo. And for just as long, George has fought to set the record straight. He found an ally in Lawrence Verria, a Rhode Island history teacher turned author. In his 2012 book, "The Kissing Sailor," Verria argues the evidence rules out everyone but the retired fisherman from Middletown, Rhode Island. "It's a story about our nation and World War II," Verria said. "It's a story about a kiss. It's a story about a place. It's a story about a publication. But at the end it's a story about two national treasures, who for 60-some years never got the due that was theirs."