Last week there was a thread about

being left handed......In our house there are 3 left handers and one right hander. Anyway I received a left handed daily calendar last year. The message for 11/8/05 provides some interesting information. "The History of Leftists vs. Right-Wingers". Thomas Carlyle, in the French Revolution, wrote that the term "leftist" evolved during the French Assembly of 1789, when it became customary for the radicals and revolutionaries to sit to the left of the presiding officer and conservative aristocrats sat to the right. Hence, those who favored sweeping social reforms were of the "left wing" of the assembly, while those who fought to maintain the status quo were of the "right wing".

... always wondered where the terms originated.

many of the people who represented the people at the Oath of the Tennis Court and/or who were in the left wing of the 1789 Assembly were subsequently killed in the revolution.

French Revolution's a bit of an interest of mine. Somebody should really make a movie about the whole thing. I can't think of any other time and place in history where the best of intentions so quickly devolved into pure sadism and inhumanity. It'd make a great tragedy.