| 100% | NBC | 3 | It aired the first coast-to-coast Oscar telecast, 1953 |
| 44% | SAMESEXMARRIAGE | 15 | The Netherlands was the first country to legalize it |
| 43% | SECRETBALLOT | 12 | Australia was the first country to implement it |
| 42% | ERIECANAL | 9 | The Seneca Chief was the first vessel to travel its entire length |
| 42% | INC | 3 | The first magazine to feature Steve Jobs on its cover, in 1981 |
| 42% | LUISE | 5 | ___ Rainer, the first person to win back-to-back Oscars |
| 42% | HAYES | 5 | First sitting president to visit the West Coast |
| 42% | LODESTONE | 9 | It was used to make the first compass |
| 42% | NHL | 3 | It first expanded to the US in 1924 |
| 41% | ARMENIAN | 8 | Member of the first state to adopt Christianity as its religion |
| 41% | ONEPIN | 6 | It's often the first to be knocked over |
| 41% | ANG | 3 | Lee who was the first Asian to win a best-director Oscar |
| 41% | HAYES | 5 | First president to visit the West Coast while in office |
| 41% | STATEDEPARTMENT | 15 | Thomas Jefferson was the first to lead it |
| 41% | MBA | 3 | Harvard was the first to offer it (1908) |
| 40% | ERNANI | 6 | Verdi work that was the first opera to be recorded in its entirety |
| 40% | PGA | 3 | Babe Zaharias was the first woman to compete on its tour, in brief |
| 40% | NORTHWESTPASSAGE | 16 | The SS Manhattan was the first commercial ship to cross it |
| 40% | ERIECANAL | 9 | The Seneca Chief was the first to travel its full length |
| 40% | TELEPHONE | 9 | Alexander Graham Bell was the first to patent it |
| 40% | NOTRE | 5 | French word that becomes its own opposite by changing the first letter to V |
| 40% | ALFONSOCUARON | 13 | First Mexican to win the Best Director Oscar (for "Gravity"): 2 wds. |
| 40% | RADIO | 5 | It was used to play music for the first time in 1906 |
| 40% | ANG | 3 | ___ Lee, first Asian to win the Oscar for Best Director |
| 40% | BLAZEATRAIL | 11 | Be the first to accomplish something (and do it spectacularly!) |
| 39% | ECON | 4 | Subj. for the 2009 Nobel Prize winner Elinor Ostrom, the first woman to receive it |
| 39% | SYRIA | 5 | First Arab country to have sanctions imposed on it by the Arab League |
| 39% | ANAGRAM | 7 | The first half of each starred clue, with respect to its second half |
| 39% | TWEETY | 6 | "Headliner" of the first Warner Bros. short to win an Oscar |
| 39% | CLARINET | 8 | Mozart was the first major composer to write specifically for it |