The nurse captured kissing a sailor on V-J Day in Times Squarein one of the most celebrated photographs of the 20th century has died.

Greta Friedman was 21 years old on August 14, 1945. After reporting to work at a dentist's office, she heard the news: Japan had surrendered, and World War II was coming to an end.

She wandered into Times Square when a passing sailor locked her in an unexpected embrace.

“I did not see him approaching, and before I know it I was in this vice grip,” she told CBS news in a 2012 interview.

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V-J Day in Times Square 

Also V-Day, and The Kiss is a photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt that portrays an American sailor kissing a woman in a white dress on Victory over Japan Day (V-J Day) in Times Square in New York City, on August 14, 1945. The photograph was published a week later in Life magazine among many photographs of celebrations around the United States that were presented in a twelve-page section titled "Victory Celebrations". A two-page spread faces three other kissing poses among celebrators in Washington, D.C.,Kansas City, and Miami opposite Eisenstaedt's, which was given a full-page display. Kissing was a favorite pose encouraged by media photographers of service personnel during the war, but Eisenstaedt was photographing a spontaneous event that occurred in Times Square soon before the announcement of the end of the war on Japan was made by U.S. President Harry S. Truman at seven o'clock. Similar jubilation spread quickly with the news.

Because Eisenstaedt was photographing rapidly changing events during the celebrations he did not have an opportunity to get the names and details. The photograph does not clearly show the face of either person involved and several people have claimed to be the subjects. The photograph was shot just south of 45th Street looking north from a location where Broadway and Seventh Avenueconverge. Soon afterward, throngs of people crowded into the square and it became a sea of people.

Greta Friedman

Galdorisi and Verria used interviews of claimants, expert photo analysis, identifying people in the background and consultations with forensic anthropologists and facial recognition specialists. They concluded that the woman was Greta Friedman and that she was wearing her dental hygienist uniform in the photograph.

"I did not see him approaching, and before I know it I was in this tight grip," Friedman told CBS News in 2012. Friedman died in September 2016 at age 92, due to health complications.

The photograph was taken at 5:51 p.m. ET, according to Donald W. Olson and his team. It was taken with a Leica IIIa.