THE sailor shown kissing a woman in New York’s Time Square in an iconic photo that captured the ecstatic celebrations at the end of World War II died Sunday in Rhode Island, according to family members.

George Mendonsa was two days short of his 96th birthday when he died at an assisted living facility in Middletown.

Mendonsa’s daughter, Sharon Molleur, told the Providence Journal her 95-year-old father had fallen and had a seizure before he was pronounced dead. He lived at the facility with his wife of 70 years.

Mendonsa was shown kissing a woman he never met, 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. People spilled into the New York City streets to celebrate the news.

The photo 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 and is a popular image used on posters.

Several people later claimed to be the kissing couple, but it took facial recognition technology before Mendonsa and Friedman were finally confirmed to be the couple.

Mendonsa served on a destroyer during the war and was on leave when the end of the war was announced.

(SD-Agencies)