Fiorello Henry La Guardia was born in New York City on 11th December, 1882. The family moved to Hungary in 1898. La Guardia worked at the American consulates in Budapest, Trieste and Fiume (Rijeka) before returning to the United States in 1906.
While working as an interpreter for the United States Immigration Service at Ellis Island, La Guardia studied law at New York University. La Guardia was admitted to the bar in 1910 but his real love was politics and in 1916 was elected to the House of Representatives as a progressive Republican. When the United States entered the First World War La Guardia joined the US Air Service and served on the Italian-Austrian front.
After the Armistice La Guardia returned to Congress. An opponent of prohibition, La Guardia campaigned for women's suffrage and an end to child labour. In 1932 he co-sponsored with George Norris, the Norris-La Guardia Act, which restricted the courts' power to ban strikes.
La Guardia was elected mayor of New York City in 1933. Over the next twelve years he developed a reputation as an honest and efficient administrator. A supporter of the New Deal, La Guardia expanded the city's social-welfare services and began a program of providing low-cost housing.
In 1945 La Guardia decided against seeking re-election in 1945. The following year he became director general of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. Fiorello La Guardia died on 20th September, 1947. His autobiography, Making of an Insurgent, was published posthumously in 1948.