Carbon–hydrogen bond activation
Historians say that Otto Dimroth discovered the first C-H activation reaction. In 1902, he reported that benzene reacted with mercury(II) acetate (See: organomercury), but some scholars do not view this reaction as being a C-H activation.  Goldman & Goldberg later wrote, C-H activation looks like H-H activation: both can be achieved by electrophilic or oxidative addition. The first true C-H activation reaction was reported by Joseph Chatt in 1965 with insertion of a ruthenium atom ligated to dmpe in the C-H bond of naphthalene.