Secret Evolution of Typographic Chars

They show up all around, ones more common, other not so... Who hasn't seen the ever present ampersand (&)?
What about the pilcrow, the section sign (§), the hedera, and even the lovely asterisk(*)?

They all exist for a reason, and their evolution along history is quite interesting, for example the "&" and, began as the latin et, and evolved like this:

If you want to know all the secrets about these symbols, just jump ahead.