Oscar spouses update: Readers have sent in six pairs of spouses nominated for an Academy Award in the same year. Three of them are Fontanne/Lunt (1931-32), Lanchester/Laughton (1957), and Roberts/Harrison (1963). (Thanks to Pamela Middlings of San Ramon, Calif., and Rich Berkery of Martinez, Calif.) More in a future column.

Many trivia fans know that World War II delayed the development of television, but the Great Depression delayed it first. The first TV station started broadcasting in 1927, only seven years after the first radio station. The earliest TV companies were also in radio, and they conducted their TV experiments in secret, so as not to dampen the demand for radios.

In what decade did IBM first make the Fortune 500 list of America's largest companies?
A) 1920s
B) 1940s
C) 1960s
D) 1980s

Previous answer: Presidential candidate John McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936, when it was a U.S.

territory. (Thanks to our pal Paul Paquet of Ottawa, Canada, proprietor of the popular website www.triviahalloffame.com.)

TRIVIA FANS: Send the trivia questions you've always wanted answered, or original TriviaBits ideas of your own, with your full name and hometown, to Stan Newman at StanTrivia@aol.com or on a postcard to P.O. Box 69, Massapequa Park, NY 11762.