I just hope people, including a lot of people reading this, remember this for longer than two or three news cycles. Just because Not-Trump gets into power someday doesn't mean that he or she won't be followed by Not-Not-Trump. In fact, I guarantee the eventual rise to power of Not-Not-Trump, because the only thing that would stop it is if Not-Trump successfully institutes totalitarianism, hardly a win. Our vigilance on this matter can't depend on how much we collectively do or do not like the people currently in power. That was a big mistake Silicon Valley made over the past decade and the bill is coming due in a big way.
I only listed those two events because they were so obvious that I was surprised you hadn't considered them. There are, of course, far more events that people remember.
As far what was happening in January/February:
Pretty sure the government shut down at some point, I think that was around then.
I also remember a lot of news about the stock market breaking records and some post analysis on the tax bill which I think had already passed by then. I could have that timeline wrong on that though.
I think the Alabama Senate election was around then. That might have been earlier though, but I think there were still headlines about it in January.
That's all I remember off the top of my head. I follow political news more closely than other news lately.