| 100% | ATOMICPILE | 10 | The first one of these was built by Fermi and his team in 1942 |
| 51% | VCR | 3 | The first commercial one of these was introduced by Ampex in 1956 and cost roughly $50,000 |
| 51% | AERIE | 5 | The largest one of these was in Florida, weighted an estimated 4,000 lb plus and built by one or more pairs of Haliaeetus leucocephalus |
| 41% | JET | 3 | The Lippisch Ente was the first one of these to fly, in 1928 |
| 40% | RACE | 4 | The next one of these will start in Paris on September 5th, 2021 and end (hopefully) on November 16th, 2021 at Dakar, Senegal |
| 40% | OLYMPIC | 7 | The first modern one of these games was in Greece |
| 39% | CAN | 3 | Warhol painted one of these 32 times for his first one-man gallery exhibition in the Ferus Gallery in 1962 |
| 37% | WORD | 4 | The first one in this clue is "The" |
| 37% | JOHNGRISHAMNOVEL | 16 | What the first word of each of seven answers in this puzzle is, when preceded by “The” |
| 36% | JONASSALK | 9 | Virologist who developed the first successful polio vaccine and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Jimmy Carter in 1977 (2 wds.) |
| 36% | MOTEL | 5 | The first one was built in 1925 in San Luis Obispo, Calif. |
| 36% | TIGERWOODS | 10 | Considered one of the best in golf, he was central figure in a controversy that involved infidelity and ended in his divorce: 2 wds. |
| 36% | ALEX | 4 | ___ Cross, fictional former FBI agent and psychologist created by James Patterson who is the protagonist in many of his books |
| 36% | BOBSLEIGH | 9 | Winter Olympic sport in which teams of two race on narrow iced tracks and was first played in the 1870s |
| 36% | SOAPS | 5 | Galen of Pergamon described these in the 2nd century and stated the best were Germanic with Gaulish ones second best |
| 35% | JAMESJOYCE | 10 | The first part of his ''Ulysses'' was published in 1918 |
| 35% | ROPE | 4 | *Hitch material, and one of ten one-word movies in this puzzle directed by the honoree |
| 35% | ELDORADO | 8 | The first complete navigation of the Amazon was in search of this |
| 34% | IBIS | 4 | One of the first birds released by Noah after the flood, in legend |
| 34% | PAGE | 4 | One of 1,225 in the first published edition of "War and Peace" |
| 34% | ORGAN | 5 | Tommy, lead guitarist in The Jacksons' "Unity Tour" of 2012 and 2013, who would seem to be playing the wrong instrument, judging by his name |
| 34% | COLUMN | 6 | This answer is in the third one of this puzzle |
| 34% | PSALM | 5 | The first one begins "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly" |
| 34% | NOVA | 4 | The first recorded one was noted by the Greek scientist Hipparchus in 134 B.C. |
| 34% | ALIENS | 6 | One of the eggs used in this 1986 film is now exhibited at the Smithsonian |
| 34% | IVANI | 5 | Person who built the first stone Cathedral of the Archangel in Moscow and was also the first person to be buried there |
| 34% | PETE | 4 | I became the number one tennis player in 1993 and my record of 14 Grand Slams was surpassed by Federer in 2009 |
| 33% | INVENTIONS | 10 | Legacy of 72-Down, seven of which appear among this puzzle's answers and one more suggested by the black squares in the middle of the grid |
| 33% | YOUREMUTED | 10 | Comment about the silence on Zoom ... and what's spelled out by the sounds that have been removed from the starts of 10 phrases in this puzzle |
| 33% | SMORE | 5 | The first recipe for one was published in "Tramping and Trailing With the Girl Scouts" (1927) |