Over the past five decades there have been more than 200 -gate scandals, according to a Wikipedia list, and the suffix is used by many without any recollection of the original Watergate
Photo taken on August 9, 1974: The 37th President of the United States, Richard Nixon, bids farewell to the White House staff.
Image: Consolidated News Pictures / AFP
The break-in 50 years ago by Republican operatives at a Washington office led to the historic resignation of US president Richard Nixon—but arguably it reverberated more deeply around the world with the coining of a single term: Watergate.
Ever since the Potomac riverside building lent its name to one of Washington's greatest political crimes, -gate has become the signifier of choice for scandals worldwide—a fact not lost on British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, nearly undone just this year by his own Partygate.
Over the past five decades there have been more than 200 -gate scandals, according to a Wikipedia list, and the suffix is used by many without any recollection of the original Watergate.
Indeed, it was already going global when Nixon, embroiled in a snowballing mess of his own making, was forced to resign the presidency in 1974.
That same year, the shocking news that Bordeaux vintners were doctoring their product was dubbed Winegate.