| 100% | OKA | 3 | Site of a 78 day, 1990 armed standoff in Quebec between the Mohawk First Nation and the Government of Quebec |
| 34% | POLTAVA | 7 | City in Ukraine on the Vorskla River; site of a 1709 battle between Russia and Sweden |
| 34% | PREMOLAR | 8 | Any one of the eight teeth in a human adult situated between the first molars and the canines |
| 32% | ADVENT | 6 | & 18D First day of the liturgical year in Western Christianity, falling on any date between November 27 and December 3 |
| 32% | ALAMO | 5 | The —, mission in San Antonio, Texas; site of a siege and massacre in 1836 |
| 31% | MILA | 4 | First name in the credits of Four Good Days and Bad Moms |
| 30% | OCTAVE | 6 | Interval between the first and eighth notes in a musical scale |
| 30% | ATTU | 4 | The Battle of ___, a famed battle between U.S and Japanese forces in Alaska |
| 30% | TRE | 3 | Third album of a Green Day trilogy, following "¡Uno!" and "¡Dos!" ... and the first name of the band's drummer |
| 30% | GLENCOE | 7 | Site in Scotland of a 1692 massacre of the MacDonalds by the Campbells and English troops |
| 30% | MAEJEMISON | 10 | The first Black female astronaut and winner of a National Achievement Scholarship in 1973: 2 wds. |
| 30% | DISCONTENT | 10 | "The first step in the progress of a man or a nation," per Oscar Wilde |
| 29% | HOCK | 4 | Joint in the hind leg of a horse between the gaskin and the cannon bone |
| 29% | ROSSSEA | 7 | Large arm of the Pacific Ocean between Victoria Land and the Edward VII Peninsula in Antarctica |
| 29% | WILLYOUPLEASE | 13 | Start of a run-together exchange between Clifton Webb and Dana Andrews in the film Laura |
| 29% | LINCOLN | 7 | Abraham ___, 16th President of the U.S.A. and the first to sport a beard in office |
| 28% | ECARTE | 6 | In ballet, a position in which one arm and the same leg are extended at the side of the body |
| 28% | OREO | 4 | "Biscuit" first produced in Chelsea, Manhattan in 1912 and sold at the price of 25 cents a pound |
| 28% | NATO | 4 | An alliance between American and European forces, that played a big part in the occupation of Afghanistan: Abbr |
| 28% | SAAR | 4 | Area governed by the League of Nations for 15 years and returned to Germany in a 1935 plebiscite |
| 28% | MORN | 4 | Poetic time of day … and a clue to the circled square in this row |
| 28% | ANNPRESTON | 10 | American physician and activist who was the first female dean of a medical school in the world: 2 wds. |
| 28% | APSE | 4 | Site of a mosaic in the Hagia Sophia |
| 28% | PUTARINGONIT | 12 | Lock in a spouse, and what the first letters of six Down answers do visually |
| 28% | OLIVERREED | 10 | Actor whose first name is the title of a Best Picture he co-starred in, and whose last name is that film's director |
| 28% | HOWIWISH | 8 | With 94- and 72-Across, a mnemonic for the first eight digits of [symbol in the middle of the grid] |
| 28% | IWOJIMA | 7 | Site of a 1945 Allied victory in the Pacific |
| 28% | IRVINE | 6 | Site of a U.C. in the O.C. |