On Color Usability

Upon further thought on the use of colors and usability of certain technology, I thought about how true it was for electronics. For nearly everything, a little green light indicates everything is on and working, orange means standby, and red means something terrible. I wonder how this came to be. I know that street lights have similar implications with the green go and red stop. I guess also that green often means yes while red means no. This is definitely true in most countries too from the extent of my travels. Thus, I am curious as to why the world has come to these conclusions.