Re ise/ize.
This is yet another misapprehension that a spelling preference has somehow been invented by the Americans. The 'ize' spelling was in fact almost universal in the UK in the 19th century, and underwent a gradual shift to 'ise' during the 20th century. The 'ize' spelling hung on in various academic circles, and watching an old episode of 'Morse' recently, I noticed that Morse dismissed a supposed suicide note as a fake as "no self-respecting Oxford man would spell 'realise' with an 's' ". Like many old English spellings and usages, (tire, gotten etc) it has hung on in the US long after it virtually disappeared over here