The famous New York Daily News 'Cry Baby' front page, with Ed Murawinski's cartoon of Newt Gingrich, 16 November 1995. Photograph: by permission of the New York Daily News

November 15, 1995 started like any other at the New York Daily News; the search for the story that would make the next day's headline. It ended with a front page that shook American politics; began the downfall of one of the country's most powerful men; still, to this day, makes news and put a journalist from the West Midlands in the media spotlight.

It also means I can forget about any visits to the White House if Newt Gingrich ever becomes president.

That particular morning, our only story was an expose: New York's Ten Worst Cab Drivers – a predictable, annual staple. After aiming a fair amount of ill-temper at key executives, I left the office to spend time with a sick colleague at his home.

At lunchtime, there was a message from the Washington bureau: Lars-Erik Nelson, the newspaper's national political columnist, needed to speak urgently. It was unusual. "Lars", as everyone knew him, let his insightful writing about Capitol Hill do his talking.

He had been at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast to meet Newt Gingrich, then, as House speaker, one of the most powerful politicians in Washington, having helped engineer a Republican landslide in the previous year's mid-term elections. With an embattled Bill Clinton in the White House, Gingrich had introduced his radical rightwing Contract with America. Republicans swept to victory to take control of the House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years. The party and Gingrich seemed unstoppable … until the fateful breakfast on 15 November.

Nine days earlier, Air Force One had flown to Jerusalem to take President Clinton, former Presidents Jimmy Carter and George HW Bush and other Washington luminaries, including Newt Gingrich, to the funeral of assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The solemn trip gave Clinton a break from a deadlocked Washington, where an intransigent Republican party was holding his feet to the fire over budget negotiations.

When the party returned, talks turned ugly as Republicans, determined to curb Clinton's public spending, submitted a budget that he refused to sign. By 14 November, all non-essential services were shut down.

Against this background, Lars-Erik Nelson sat down at breakfast and heard Gingrich make a remarkable statement – one reason he had forced the government shutdown was because Clinton had made him sit at the back of Air Force One to and from Israel.

Lars was stunned. When breakfast ended, he asked Gingrich to repeat what he said. He did. In his column, Lars wrote:

"Here was Newt Gingrich, leader of the Republican Revolution and defender of civilization on this planet, forced to sit for 25 hours in the back of Air Force One, waiting for President Clinton to stop by and negotiate a budget deal. But Clinton never came back. So Gingrich, in his rage, drafted two resolutions that forced Clinton to bring the federal government to a grinding halt."

His actions were beyond childish, and, in one of those rare moments of total journalistic clarity, I knew instantly what to do. I found Ed Murawinski, an amiable, giant of a man and a brilliant Daily News editorial cartoonist.

Give me a screaming, bawling, diaper-wearing Newt Gingrich. The tears and bottle were Ed's subtle touches, but his image brilliantly captured what Lars-Erik reported:

"When the plane landed at … Washington, Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole were asked to deplane by gasp! the rear door. "'This is petty,' Gingrich confessed. 'I'm going to say up front it's petty, but I think it's human. When you land at Andrews and you've been on the plane for 25 hours and nobody has talked to you and they ask you to get off by the back ramp … you just wonder, where is their sense of manners, where is their sense of courtesy?'"

The "CRY BABY" headline was always in my mind. The front page came together and I left happy – unprepared for the coming firestorm. An 8am phone call was the first warning sign.

The office told me to turn on Capitol Hill television. There, at the front of the House, was an 8ft tall blow-up of my front page, surrounded by furious Democrats, and angry, shame-faced Republicans. Officials were wrestling to have it removed.

By mid-morning, every American media organization was in the office, talking to me, Ed and Lars. By early evening, the Daily News front page – and a story that no one else at that breakfast had reported – was creating a national debate on the pettiness of politics.

Before he died, in 2000, Lars-Erik Nelson told me that it was one of the few front pages that truly changed politics. Republicans said that the Daily News had revealed Newt Gingrich's true face. His reputation was irreparably damaged.

Seventeen years later, "Cry Baby" is back, being held up by anti-Gingrich protesters across America. It is a testament to great reporting and the power of the popular press – and a salutary lesson on when important people should keep their mouths firmly shut.