How did the convention of 'multiplying' using $4\times 3$ become $4\cdot 3$?

Question

How did the convention of 'multiplying' using the cross symbol $4\times 3$ become $4\cdot 3$, using a dot in the middle?

Answer 1

As far as I know this originated from Leibniz around 1695 because he thought that you could too easily mistake the multiplying symbol $\times$ for the variable $x$ and he used a point instead. He first used it in a correspondence in 1698.

Answer 2

From A Brief History of Algebraic Notation by Lynn Stallings:

Textbook writer William Oughtred...was the first to use the St. Andrew's Cross, $\times$, for multiplication in his 1631 Clavis Mathimaticae...Seventeenth century German genius Leibniz criticized Oughtred's use of the cross...because it looked too much like the letter $x$; he suggested the $\cdot$ for multiplication in its place.