TIMELINE: Key events in Uzbekistan's post-Soviet history

(Reuters) - Uzbekistan votes in a presidential election on Sunday certain to give President Islam Karimov a third term.

Below is a chronology of key events in Karimov's life.

Islam Karimov, son of a Tajik mother and Uzbek father, was born on January 30, 1938.

June 1989 - Karimov, Soviet apparatchik, appointed first secretary of Communist party of Uzbek Soviet republic amid violent attacks against minorities in Ferghana Valley.

September 1991 - Uzbekistan declares independence from the Soviet Union. The country joins the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) -- a grouping of former Soviet republics.

December - Karimov elected president.

1992 - Karimov bans the opposition Birlik and Erk parties.

March 1995 - Karimov's first presidential term extended until 2000 in a referendum.

1999 - Bomb blasts in Tashkent kill more than a dozen people. Karimov blames Islamist extremists.

August-November - Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan insurgents launch attacks against government forces from mountain hideouts.

January 2000 - Karimov re-elected president. Western observers call the elections neither free nor fair.

New York-based Human Rights Watch accuses Uzbekistan of widespread use of torture.

October 2001 - Uzbekistan allows U.S. military forces to use its air bases to attack Taliban in Afghanistan.

January 2002 - Karimov extends his presidential term from five to seven years in a referendum criticized by the West.

December - United Nations accuses Uzbekistan of "systematic use of torture".

March-April 2004 - Suicide bombings in Tashkent and Bukhara. Uzbek forces storm suspected Islamist hideout. Fifty people are killed.