When I started studying math in 1982 in Germany, there seemed to have been a change in the choice of the default orientation of vectors; while it was row-vectors till then, it changed to column-vectors from then on.

My questions are, whether there actually was such a major change and, what were the reasons >and who the influential people and/or what the seminal publications were.

When was a default orientation for vectors defined for the first time and, was it widely accepted or have there been discussion about the proper choice?