| 100% | EXILE | 5 | Solzhenitsyn, in 1953 |
| 62% | ASCENTOFEVEREST | 15 | Peak performance in 1953? |
| 62% | EVEREST | 7 | Peak in 1953 news |
| 61% | SOPHIALOREN | 11 | 58-Across player in 1953 |
| 61% | MOUNTEVEREST | 12 | It was conquered in 1953 |
| 61% | QEII | 4 | Ruler crowned in 1953, informally |
| 61% | ACE | 3 | Paperback publisher founded in 1953 |
| 61% | AIDE | 4 | Stassen, to Eisenhower in 1953 |
| 61% | ACS | 3 | GM introduced them in 1953 |
| 59% | MAD | 3 | William Gaines founded it in 1953 |
| 59% | DDE | 3 | He became US president in 1953 |
| 59% | EVEREST | 7 | It was first conquered in 1953 |
| 59% | TEA | 3 | England first bagged it in 1953 |
| 59% | TONY | 4 | "The Crucible" won one in 1953 |
| 59% | STALIN | 6 | Russian leader who died in 1953 |
| 59% | KOREA | 5 | Country that was divided in 1953 |
| 58% | LAROSA | 6 | Crooner canned on live TV in 1953 |
| 58% | JONASSALK | 9 | Researcher who developed polio vaccine in 1953 |
| 58% | SAMARITANS | 10 | Charity founded by Chad Varah in 1953 |
| 58% | OSCARS | 6 | Event first televised in 1953, with "the" |
| 58% | STALIN | 6 | Joseph —, Soviet leader who died in 1953 |
| 57% | SSR | 3 | Solzhenitsyn was imprisoned in one: abbr. |
| 56% | LINEARB | 7 | 3,500-year-old writing deciphered in 1953 |
| 56% | RIN | 3 | Currency unit taken out of circulation in 1953 |
| 56% | HEFNER | 6 | Hugh —, publisher who launched Playboy magazine in 1953 |
| 56% | HOLIDAY | 7 | Audrey Hepburn had a Roman one in 1953 |
| 56% | STALAGXVII | 10 | 1953 Billy Wilder film, in Rome? |
| 56% | SHANE | 5 | 1953 hit film set in Wyoming |
| 55% | CHURCHILL | 9 | Twice UK Prime Minister, won Nobel Prize in 1953 |
| 55% | MARLONBRANDO | 12 | Player of Mark Antony in 1953's "Julius Caesar" |