Fiorello LaGuardia

Fiorello Henry La Guardia was an American attorney and politician who represented New York in the U.S. House of Representatives and served as the 100th mayor of New York City from 1934 to 1946. He was known for his irascible, energetic, and charismatic personality and diminutive, rotund stature. A member of the Republican Party, La Guardia was frequently cross-endorsed by parties other than his own, especially parties on the left under New York's electoral fusion laws. A panel of 69 scholars in 1993 ranked him as the best big city mayor in American history.