La Guardia, Fiorello Henry

Born Dec. 11, 1882, in New York City; died there Sept. 20, 1947. US political figure. Attended New York University Law School and was admitted to the bar in 1910.

In 1916, La Guardia was elected to the House of Representatives on the Republican ticket. He served in the air force in World War I. He was elected seven times to the House of Representatives beginning in 1922, affiliating with the “progressive bloc” there. He and Senator G. W. Norris sponsored a law adopted in 1932 that to some extent expanded the rights of trade unions and limited the intervention of federal courts in their activity (the Norris-La Guardia Act). He was mayor of New York City from 1933 to 1945. He supported F. Roosevelt’s New Deal. From March to December 1946 he was director general of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.