Glenn McDuffie was 18 years old the day World War II ended. Having just exited a New York subway station at Times Square, McDuffie, a sailor, heard the news, grabbed a nurse and kissed her. Photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt captured the the moment, which became synonymous with V-J day—August 14, 1945.
McDuffie died March 9 in Dallas. He was 86 years old, according to the Associated Press.

Image: The Chronicle, Melissa Phillip/Associated Press

Eisenstaedt never asked the nurse or sailor for their names, and the iconic image had unidentified subjects for years. In 1980, Los Angeles schoolteacher Edith Shain reached out to Life magazine to claim she was the woman in the photo. Eisenstaedt flew out to meet her and confirmed the she was the iconic nurse. A number of men claimed to be the sailor, but McDuffie's account was confirmed in 2007 by a forensic specialist.
McDuffie went on to be a semi-professional basketball player and worked as a mail carrier. He will be buried at the Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery, the AP reported.

BONUS: 12 Iconic Magazine Covers You'll Never Forget

People's "Tribute to Diana" issue sold more than 3.1 million copies on the newsstand, making it the second-bestselling issue of People of all-time (the No. 1 spot is held by People’s 9/24/01 issue featuring the 9/11 World Trade Center cover). Princess Diana has appeared on the magazine's cover 57 times.
“The interest in the Royal Family remains extremely strong with People’s 43 million readers – perhaps as strong as it was in 1982 when Prince William was born, if not more,” said Larry Hackett, managing editor. “Five of the top 10 bestselling issues of People have been about the Royals.”
Time's provocative cover ignited a debate over breastfeeding. How old is too old? Is it appropriate in public? What's best for the child's health? The cover accompanied an article on the rise of attachment parenting.
“When you think of breast-feeding, you think of mothers holding their children, which was impossible with some of these older kids,” photographer Martin Schoeller said in an interview with Time.com. “I liked the idea of having the kids standing up to underline the point that this was an uncommon situation.”
TIME and the Red Border Design are registered trademarks of Time Inc. Used with permission.
The cover story for this issue, "M" by John Sack, is the longest story Esquire has ever published and has since become known as a landmark piece of journalism. The story explores one company's journey from Fort Dix to Vietnam and marked a shift in popular attitudes toward the Vietnam War.
Harold Hayes and George Lois created the cover and surprised Sack himself, who expected a more conventional war photograph. "No," Hayes told him, according to Carol Polsgrove in her book, Esquire in the Sixties, "you don't understand your article at all."
The Boston Marathon bombing occurred just hours before Sports Illustrated's closing deadline. Editors scrambled to include stories related to the tragedy, including this high-energy snapshot. Seconds after the blast, 78-year-old runner Bill Ifrig was knocked to the ground while a trio of policeman rushed to action.
"We chose to run the cover photo because we felt it truly captured the horrific moment at the end of the race," said Chris Stone, managing editor. "There’s a fallen runner, police with their guns drawn and loose debris from the explosion."
Photographer Platon only had seven minutes in a cramped New Jersey hotel room to capture this iconic image of Bill Clinton. The president's pose was intended to evoke the Lincoln Memorial; instead, critics claimed the photo was deliberately shot at crotch level to evoke Clinton's sex scandals.
Despite the controversy, Clinton went on to pose for three more Esquire covers.
Ellen DeGeneres may be a beloved figure in Hollywood today, but her proclamation on t he cover of Time in 1997 -- "Yep, I'm Gay" -- nearly jeopardized her career. She was ostracized by the industry and could not find work for the following three years.
TIME and the Red Border Design are registered trademarks of Time Inc. Used with permission.
This dynamic image of Manhattan during Hurricane Sandy earned New York 2012 Cover of the Year from the American Society of Magazine Editors. The cover sold nearly 16,000 copies on newsstands, which make up just a tiny slice (less than 5%) of the magazine's total circulation. It was the highest referred article of the year from the magazine’s Twitter account.
According to New York's spokesperson Lauren Starke, many New Yorkers have saved the cover for posterity. In fact, a poster version was offered for sale through the Museum of Modern Art to benefit relief efforts. The image was also used to launch the magazine's Instagram account.
This eerie shot of the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center became People's bestselling issue ever.
While a few other major magazines chose to publish actual photos of the attacks, the image on this gatefold cover stands out for its high-contrast color scheme and broad view of New York City's skyline.
Katiti Kironde was a winner of Glamour's Top 10 College Women competition. She was the first black woman to be on the cover of a major women's magazine.
According to Glamour's executive editor Wendy Naugle, "Before the issue hit stands, there were some fears this could hurt sales. But more than 2 million copies were sold--making it the best-selling cover in the then-29 year history of the magazine. The cover sparked controversy, and Glamour received angry letters. But the positive response far outweighed those--not just the cover sales, but the grateful and passionate letters we received from all kinds of women across the country, in every profession."
Saul Steinberg, who created this cover's artwork, once said that he thrived to make pictures that would change the way one sees the world, pictures the viewer wouldn’t be able to erase from his memory.
His “View of the World from 9th Avenue,” as it is widely known, shows New Yorkers’ view of Manhattan as the center of the world.
This cover has been imitated countless times, including covers by Mad Magazine, The Economist and The New Yorker itself.
In honor of the first manned moon landing on July 20, 1969, Life released this special edition three weeks later.
Thanks to years of dedicated coverage of the Space Race, the magazine had positioned itself as the premiere source of information on Apollo 11's mission. For many Americans, the concept of a moon landing seemed like fantasy until LIFE broke down the story into comprehensive text and breathtaking images.
Time and the Red Border Design are registered trademarks of Time Inc. Used with permission.
This image of Sharbat Gula, a young Afghan girl living in a refugee camp along the border of Pakistan, has become the most famous cover in National Geographic's 125-year history.
In one refugee tent being used as a makeshift school, Steve McCurry photographed Gula with a haunted look in her eyes; her village had been bombed, her relatives killed, and she had trekked through the mountains for weeks before arriving at the camp.