Secretin
Secretin was the first hormone to be identified. In 1902, William Bayliss and Ernest Starling were studying how the nervous system controls the process of digestion. It was known that the pancreas secreted digestive juices in response to the passage of food (chyme) through the pyloric sphincter into the duodenum. They discovered (by cutting all the nerves to the pancreas in their experimental animals) that this process was not, in fact, governed by the nervous system. They determined that a substance secreted by the intestinal lining stimulates the pancreas after being transported via the bloodstream. They named this intestinal secretion "secretin". Secretin was the first such "chemical messenger" identified. This type of substance is now called a hormone, a term coined by Bayliss in 1905.
1-Keto-1,2,3,4-tetrahydrophenanthrene
1-Keto-1,2,3,4-tetrahydrophenanthrene (THP-1), or 1,2,3,4-tetrahydrophenanthren-1-one, is a synthetic steroid-like compound which was reported to be the first synthetic estrogen, or the first synthetic compound identified with estrogenic activity. It was first synthesized in 1933 by Cook et al. and was tested due to its similarity to the presumed chemical structure of estrone. Upon reassessment many decades later, the compound was found to bind only weakly to the estrogen receptors, and, unexpectedly, did not actually have functional activity as an estrogen or antiestrogen "in vitro" or "in vivo". It did, however, show some androgenic and antiandrogenic activity "in vitro".