Handedness, old transport customs, colonial exports and the cost of switching explain the split. Experts agree on the broad pattern but not every origin story.
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The oldest known depiction is a ninth-century BCE Assyrian relief. The 'no weapons' explanation is popular but hard to prove, and everyday handshaking spread later, with Quakers often credited.
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Surnames arose when single names no longer told people apart, as populations and bureaucracies grew. They were built from ancestors' names, places, jobs and nicknames, then became hereditary.
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Tipping was once condemned as un-American. It spread after the Civil War through European travel, low-wage service jobs and hotel changes, and Prohibition then helped it take hold.
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Red barns came from cheap, farm-made paint tinted with iron oxide (rust). Red stayed popular because it was inexpensive and protective, not for symbolic reasons.
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