You realise it predates that. The Romans rode their chariots to the left and that was the norm until the French Revolution saw the peasants use the right side of the road to cock-a-snoot* at the toffs in carriages. Once all the toffs were beheaded, Napolean thought it would be a good idea to spread the apostasy across Europe. The Americanos adopted the droit de la francais and renamed julienned potatoes french fries somehow forgetting to adopt the truly inspired french system of weights and measures (and date formats). [*code project has bowdlerised the word cock - should get the NRA onto that - they might get upset if they can't cock their rifles]