WASHINGTON, Jan. 4, 1991 (UPI) - The specter of U.S. troops possibly going to war in the Persian Gulf dominated the opening of Congress as the Democratic leadership insisted President Bush cannot order military action without congressional authorization.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 9, 1991 (UPI) - They are a small band of aging men, the survivors of the Congress that in 1964 adopted the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which was used as an authorization to send thousands of Americans to their deaths in Vietnam.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 12, 1991 (UPI) - The 52-47 vote by which the Senate Saturday approved a resolution authorizing a war against Iraq.For -- (52)

WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 (UPI) --Congress granted President Bush the power to make war against Iraq and U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar arrived in Baghdad Saturday to meet with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in a last-ditch peace mission.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 19, 1991 (UPI) - ''Life goes on'' is a favorite expression of President Bush as he goes through the most trying moments of his White House tenure.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 19, 1991 (UPI) - In times of crisis, U.S. leaders often find it easier to borrow phrases made famous in past battles rather than come up with original remarks to express what they want Americans to hear.

Iraq launched missile attacks on Saudi Arabia Sunday and early Monday and paraded on television what Iraqi officials identified as seven captured allied airmen, including three Americans.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23, 1991 (UPI) - A week into the coalition war against Iraq, senior U.S. military leaders said Wednesday the air battle had gone well and attention is turning to isolating Iraq's half-million man army in the Kuwaiti theater and efforts to ''cut it off ... to kill it.''

LONDON, Jan. 30, 1991 (UPI) - In strokes huge and ugly like the 60-mile-long oil spill blackening the Persian Gulf, wildlife experts paint a picture of death.

Here are the day-to-day highlights of the second week of the Persian Gulf War (based on local time):

NORTHEASTERN SAUDI ARABIA, Saudi Arabia, Jan. 31, 1991 (UPI) - Iraqi armored forces that crossed into an abandoned Saudi Arabian coastal town took heavy loses in a battle with allied troops who eventually drove the Iraqis back, military officials said Thursday.

TEL AVIV, Israel, Feb. 1, 1991 (UPI) - Iraq launched its eighth aerial attack against Israel, lobbing at least at least one high-explosive Scud-B missile into the occupied West Bank for the second time in four days.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 4, 1991 (UPI) -- In the midst of huge uncertainties over its duration and ultimate costs in dollars and lives, talk of the Persian Gulf War is rife with speculation about how allied victory will be defined and finally achieved.

CAIRO, Feb. 4, 1991 (UPI) - Whatever the outcome of the Persian Gulf war, potentially super-rich Iraq is broke and cannot even afford to pay a dwindling number of suppliers defying U.N. sanctions, Arab officials and economists say.

WITH U.S. MARINES IN EASTERN SAUDI ARABIA, Feb. 4, 1991 (UPI) -- The ground shook, the night sky flashed and Staff Sgt. Percy Smith III knew that American B-52 bombers were once again pounding Iraqi troops just across the border in Kuwait.