Key Historical events of Uzbekistan (1945-2000)
1930s - Under Soviet rule, Joeseph Stalin purges Uzbek leaders, replacing them with Moscow loyalists.
1944 - 160,000 Meskhetian Turks deported from Georgia to Uzbekistan by Joeseph Stalin.
1966 - Devistating earthquakes destroy much of the Uzbek capital of Treshkent
1970s-1980s - Communist Uzbek leader Sharaf Rashidov ensures promotion of ethnic Uzbek over Russian officials. He forges cotton harvest figures exposed in Russian Glasnost Scandal.
1989 - Islam Karimov becomes the leader of the Uzbek Communist Party.
1990 - The Uzbek Communist Party declares enonomic and pollitical sovereignty. Karimov becomes president of Uzbekistan.
1994 - Uzbekistan signs an economic integration treaty with Russia, and an economic, military and social cooperation treaty with Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
1995 - Karimov's term of office extended another five years.
1996 - Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan agree to create a single economic market.
1999 - Bombintg in Treshkent killing over a dozen people.
2000 - Karimov reelected into office.