Bestower of 20th century’s most famous kiss dies at 95

The ecstatic sailor shown kissing a woman in Times Square celebrating the end of World War II died on Sunday. George Mendonsa was 95.

Mendonsa, from the United States, fell and had a seizure 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.