Arsenal were 2-1 down to Liverpool at half time in April 2004. They had recently crashed out of the Champions League to Chelsea and the FA Cup to Manchester United, and their unbeaten 33 match streak was now under pressure.Thierry Henry put the Gunners on his back, netted a hat-trick and transformed the game into a 4-2 victory, customary for that period.
Wenger had made no secret of his desire to go unbeaten, and because Arsenal proved too strong for anyone else that season, Henry scored 30 goals alone Arsenal ended up settling for more and more draws, keeping Manchester United at home and Spurs away in games where they were dominant.
The latter at White Hart Lane was to be the game under Wenger that they lifted the league title for the third time.Though a controversial 2-0 to arch rivals Manchester United, the Invincibles were to be famously made mortal, with Wayne Rooney again helping to end the run of the Gunners. Since then, Arsenal haven't won a Premier League title.
The Pollock Twins Story
On May 5, 1957, Joanna Pollock, 11, and her sister Jacqueline, 6, were killed in a car accident. This left their parent's John and Florence devastated. But on October 4, 1958, Florence gave birth to twin girls, Gillian and Jennifer. Gillian and Jennifer were identical twins, but they had different birthmarks. Jennifer had a birthmark on her waist that matched a birthmark that Jacqueline had. She also had a birthmark on her forehead that resembled a scar that Jacqueline had. The family moved to Whitley Bay when the twins were three months old. Two years later, the girls started asking for toys that had belonged to their elder sisters, despite never having seen the toys before. After the family returned to Hexham, the twins, despite never having been there, pointed out landmarks their older sisters had known. They also began to panic upon seeing moving cars, shrieking, “The car is coming to get us!” After they turned five, their memories of their previous lives faded, and they went on to lead normal lives.
Aguiyi-Ironsi attended school in Umuahia, Calabar, and Kano. In addition to English and Igbo, he could also speak Hausa and Yoruba. He enlisted into the then colonial army at the age of 18 and rose to the rank of a company sergeant-major by 1946.
In 1964, Ironsi became the commander of the entire United Nations Force in Congo, the first African to do so. In 1965, he became a Major-General and Head of the Nigerian army. The first Nigerian to ever attain the rank and the post.
On January 16, 1966, Major-General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi became Nigeria’s First Military Head of State after a military coup d’état had toppled the First Republic a day before.
Of all military Heads of State, Ironsi ruled Nigeria the shortest, a mere 194 days before he was overthrown and killed by his subordinates on July 29, 1966.
This lady was locked in her room for 25years because she was beautiful.
The woman Who Was Locked by her mother in a Room for 25 Years
No sunlight nor social interaction for 25 long years.
Blanche Monnier before being locked and the detectives in the room she was locked in for 25 years.
Blanche Monnier was a gorgeous girl from France who ended up having one of the most tragic lives. She was born on the 1st of March, 1849 in Poitiers, France in what was thought to be a wonderful family at the time. Her beauty, physical appearance, and good nature attracted a lot of attention, and most importantly many potential suitors for marriage. Her parents were aristocrats and very reluctant when it came to their beautiful daughter getting married.
At the peak of her teenage years, she was attracting many suitors from the high-society as she was receiving many letters. This reached a point where it made Louise Monnier (her mother) very angry as she was with the idea of her daughter being too precious for marriage. Since that day Blanche just vanished from Paris, or did she?
Isolated from everything and everyone
Louise Monnier had locked her daughter in her room for good, boarding the windows so that no sunlight, and most importantly no one can see her. This left Blanche isolated from the whole world apart from her parents, brother, and servants around the house. She was not allowed to get off the bed in her room nor was she allowed any sort of basic hygiene. For half of her life, Blanche laid in bed where she ate, urinated, and defecated.
Blanche Monnier, shortly after being discovered in her locked room in 1901
Blanche’s parents told her friends and relatives that she was sent to some sort of Boarding school in the United Kingdon and due to her schedule she was not able to come back home very soon. At the point where she was supposed to finish her study, the lies advanced to Blanche making a life of her own in Scotland, which separated her from any relatives in France.
The Horrific Discovery
After 25 years, on the 23rd of March, 1901, the attorney general from Paris received an anonymous letter stating that a well know family from Paris is hiding something behind closed doors. Even to this day, the author of the letter is still unknown, however, historians do believe it was one of the servants.
Monsieur Attorney General: I have the honor to inform you of an exceptionally serious occurrence. I speak of a spinster who is locked up in Madame Monnier’s house, half-starved and living on a putrid litter for the past twenty-five years — in a word, in her own filth.
The Monnier family was seen as highly regarded in the Parisian community which made the authorities reluctant about the claims made in the letter, but never the less, the authorities went to investigate the Monnier estate. At first glance, the property looked “clean”, until the investigators noticed a rotting smell coming from one of the rooms.
Upon reaching the room from which the rotting smell was coming from, the investigators noticed that the room has been locked for years as the padlock seemed rusty. The authorities smashed the padlocked and barged into a room full of horror. The authorities had written a grim report based on their findings, here is a paragraph from those reports, summarising their findings:
The women looked extremely malnourished whilst lying completely naked on a rotten mattress. All around her formed a crust made from excrement and fragments of food… We also saw bugs running across Mademoiselle Monnier’s bed. The air inside the room was so unbearable, it was impossible for us to proceed with our investigation any longer.
The room was so dark the investigators broke the barricades from the window, that was the first time that Blanche has seen the sunlight after 25 years. She told the investigators that she was chained for 25 long years and offered the bare minimum to survive. Her health condition was so bad that she weighed only 25 kilograms and she did not have the power to stand up on her own feet.
Once she was transported to the hospital she mentioned how wonderful it is to smell the fresh mesmerizing air. The doctors have mentioned how incredible it is that she managed to survive in such an atrocious condition with no movement for so many years.
Justice served
A big case took part where all of the Monnier family was interrogated. Louise Monnier was arrested but had died 15 days after her imprisonment from what the authorities think was a heart condition, but many assume she drugged herself. Marcel Monnier, Blanche’s brother tried to defend himself by saying his mother was in charge of this crime. Despite the evidence that was provided, Marcel was sentenced to 15 years by playing a role in Blanche's mistreatment and imprisonment.
Even if now Blanche was free, life wasn't easy for her. Because of the 25 years imprisonment, Blanche developed major mental issues and health problems such as coprophilia, exhibitionism, and schizophrenia. Due to all these problems, she was commissioned to a psychiatric hospital where she died in 1913.
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