La Guardia, Fiorello (Henry) (1882–1947)
US Republican politician. He was mayor of New York 1933–45. Elected against the opposition of the powerful Tammany Hall Democratic Party organization, he improved the administration of the city, suppressed racketeering, and organized unemployment relief, slum-clearance schemes, and social services. Although nominally a Republican, he supported the Democratic president Franklin D Roosevelt's New Deal.
| La Guardia was born in New York and educated at New York University. He was deputy attorney general of New York 1915–17; and a congressman 1917–19 and 1923–33. In World War I he commanded the Eighth Centre Aviation School and the American Flying Force on the Italian front. From 1940 he chaired the US section of the Canada–US Defense Board and he was director of US civil defence 1941–42. In 1946 he was director general of UNRRA (United Nations Relief and Reconstruction Agency), an organization helping European recovery after World War II. |
| La Guardia Airport, in New York, is named after him. |
