Reaction of phenol and zinc dust
Ludwig Gattermann's The Practical Methods of Organic Chemistry (translated into English, 1896) has two references to reduction of aromatics with zinc dust:

The first one refers to Liebigs Annalen, issue 140, page 295 (1866):

Ueber die Reduction aromatischer Verbindungen mittelst Zinkstaub, Adolf Baeyer

This roughly translates to &quot;On the reduction of aromatic compounds using zinc dust&quot;.
The second one refers to Chemische Berichte, issue 1, page 43 (1868):

Ueber Alizarin und Anthracen, C. Graebe C. Liebermann

This translates to &quot;On alizarin and anthracen&quot;. Wiley, who now owns the Berichte, cites the page numbers as 49-51.
Name of the reaction
The reaction is given without name, even in modern textbooks. Maybe it should be called Baeyer reduction of aromatic oxygen-containing compounds.
Mechanism of the reaction
Maybe this would be a good research project because it does not seem like the mechanism is known.