Why are electrons negetively charged?

Question

Why have we assigned a negative charge to electrons (and positive for protons)?

I feel it would be easier if electrons were positive (thereby, protons negative)- electrons would flow in the direction of current rather than flowing in the opposite direction. Something that would make more natural sense.

Is there is a historical reason or just something we have overlooked and now it's too late to change it?

Or is there a compelling reason for this choice that I could not find over the web?

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it belongs on History of Science. — Carl Witthoft, Apr 19 '16 at 12:00
One random choice by Benjamin Franklin while dealing with static electricity — UKH, Apr 19 '16 at 12:04
Possible duplicate of Why is the charge naming convention wrong? — Kyle Oman, Apr 19 '16 at 12:12

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 19 '16 at 12:17

The reason is that all experiments known can be explained by having two types of electric charge. To distinguish between the two types of charge them it is necessary to introduce labels, conventionally the labels were taken be "positive" and "negative". Because of history, electrons are given the label "negative".

Why are electrons negetively charged?

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