George Mendonsa dies; A Second World War sailor kisses a nurse in Times Square after an iconic photo dead at age 95

Providence, R.I. – The ecstatic sailor shown kiss a woman in Times Square celebrate the end of the second world war is dead. George Mendonsa was 95 years old.

Mendonsa's daughter, Sharon Molleur, told The Providence Journal that Mendonsa had fallen and had a seizure on Sunday at the assisted living center in Middletown, Rhode Island, where he had lived with his wife for 70 years.

Mendonsa was shown to ship Greta Zimmer Friedman, a dental assistant in nurse uniform, on August 14, 1945. Known as VJ Day, it was the day Japan went to in the USA.

The photo of Alfred Eisenstaedt became one of the most famous photographs of the twentieth century.

It was several years before Mendonsa and Friedman were confirmed. Friedman passed away in 2016 at the age of 92 years.

Mendonsa died two days before his 96th birthday.

"It's the moment you come back from the Pacific and the war finally ends," Mendonsa told Michelle Miller of CBS News in 2012.

"I did not see him approach, and before I knew it, I was in this vise," Friedman said.

But Mendonsa said that he had not kissed her long time ago.

While the complete strangers close, the world-renowned photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt takes four photos in just 10 seconds. CBS News reunited George and Greta in 2012 on the place of their kiss for the second time since that day in 1945.

"The excitement of the war being over, I also drank a few drinks," Mendonsa said. "So when I saw the nurse, I caught her and I kissed her."

But they were not the only ones to claim credit. For more than 30 years, others have claimed to be the ones in the photo. And all the while, George has been fighting to restore the facts.

He found an ally in Lawrence Verria, a Rhode Island history professor turned author. In his 2012 book, "The Kissing Sailor," Verria says evidence excludes everyone, except for the retired fisherman from Middletown, Rhode Island.

"It's a story about our country and the Second World War," Verria said. "It's a story of kissing, it's a story of place, it's a story of publication, but in the end it's the story of two national treasures that, for sixty years, have never had the merit they deserve. "