Aldus Manutius invented the semicolon

Some inventions have transformed the history of the world and have become widely publicized. Some inventions have also had great influence, but the inventor has remained relatively unknown.

 

One of these inventors is Aldus Manutius, who lived between 1450 and 1515. Only 44 years old he invented the semicolon character (;). One can imagine how the mood was in his Venetian printing works when they realized that they had created something new, something big, something historic (I am ironic).

What they did not count on was the fact that not one single, normally gifted person, would use the sign during its first 510 years, but the suddenly used thousands of times an hour around the globe;-)

 

Semicolon was originally meant to be used when you think that a point is a too strong separation sign and a comma causes two sentences in a row. It is used between sentences - typically main clauses - which are closely related to each other. A semicolon is usually followed by small letters and can also be used for enumerations in order to separate groups from each other