@Wiimeiser
Actually, the left-right political divide dates back from the French Revolution, when the National Assembly had the supporters of the king sitting to the right of the assembly’s president (considered as the places of honor), to set themselves apart from the supporters of the revolution. After the Restoration, the divide was cemented between anti-revolutionary ultramonarchists (right-wingers) and liberal defenders of the Revolution’s values (left-wingers), with the moderate Constitutionals and independents in-between.
From then on, the right was considered as the “party of order” while the left was “the party of change”.
Then, over the 19th century and into the early 20th, this terminology spread across the different parliamentary regimes that were established in Europe.
Apparently, its adoption in American vernacular is relatively recent (especially as Americans have long privileged the liberal-conservative dichotomy, “leftist” becoming synonym of “communist” after the Red Scare).
Ironically, in Congress, the Democrats sit on the right side of the aisle, while the Republicans sit on the left.