Fiorello La Guardia
/fiːəˌreləʊ lə ˈɡwɑːdiə/
/fiːəˌreləʊ lə ˈɡwɑːrdiə/
- (1882-1947) a popular mayor of New York (1933-45). He was known as the 'Little Flower', which is what Fiorello means in Italian. He began his career as a Republican politician and was elected to the US Congress (1917-19 and 1923-33). As mayor, he introduced measures to deal with problems of health, housing, transport and crime. During a newspaper strike in 1937 he pleased children by reading comic strips on the radio. La Guardia Airport is named after him.