WASHINGTON -- Americans can start voting Saturday on subjects for 15 new postage stamps to represent the people and events of the 1990s.
Voters have throughout May to choose among 30 topics proposed by postal officials. Candidates include cell phones, the Internet, "Seinfeld" and the gulf war.Ballots will be available at post offices across the country and via the Internet for the set, the last of 10 to highlight each decade of the century. The Internet site is http://stampvote.msn.com.
"Last year the public cast more than 24 million votes to let us know what they wanted to see on postage stamps honoring the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s," said Postmaster General William Henderson.
"This year the public has decided that video games, the fall of the Berlin Wall and personal computers will be among the subjects representing the 1980s. Now we'll see what 1990s topics stand out in the minds of Americans."
The post office's "Celebrate the Century" program is highlighting some of the most significant people, places and events with commemorative stamps into the year 2000.
Sets of stamps saluting the 1900s, 1910s, 1920s, 1930s and 1940s are now available at all post offices. The 1950s stamp set will be issued May 26 in Springfield, Mass. The 1960s set will be issued in August, the 1970s in November, the 1980s in January 2000 and the 1990s in April 2000.
The ballot subjects for the 1990s set are:
People and events: improving education, cultural diversity, sustained economic growth, gulf war, recovering species, active older Americans.
Arts and entertainment: contemporary architecture, movie "Jurassic Park," computer art and graphics, Broadway musicals, TV series "Seinfeld," movie "Titanic."
Sports: baseball records broken, extreme sports, women's sports, in-line skating, junior golf, Special Olympics.
Science and technology: virtual reality, dinosaur fossil discovery, gene therapy, World Wide Web, return to space, interplanetary exploration.
Lifestyle: cellular phones, museum attendance, home offices, sport utility vehicles, community service, popularity of coffee.