Why do Americans spell gray differently?

Americans spell gray differently with a instead of e as grey due to Noah Webster's spelling reforms and evolution of American English aiming for simplification and distinct identity from British English. In British English, grey with e is standard historical spelling from Old English græg, used in UK, Commonwealth including India, Australia, Canada. In American English, gray with a became standard, partly because Noah Webster in his 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language promoted simplified and Americanized spellings, changing colour to color, centre to center, and also favoring gray. Another reason is that both spellings existed historically in Middle English with variation, and American printers and dictionary makers settled on gray while British settled on grey. The American preference for gray may also be influenced by desire to distinguish from British and create consistency. Pronunciation is identical, only written form differs. In US, gray is used in official documents, Crayola crayons in US market label color as gray, and gray is standard in American books per Google Ngram. In contrast, grey remains standard in British books. Both spellings are correct and understood worldwide, but Americans use gray to align with American English norms that removed extra letters like U in color. So Americans spell gray differently due to historical spelling variation codified by Webster's reforms and American English standardization, not due to different meaning or pronunciation.