Q: Whining noise from transmission and difficulty in shifting

When i bought the car, there was a grinding noise from the transmission when i used to accelerate or decelerate (just off throttle) and noise used to disappear completely when clutch was pressed. Today, The vehicle was driving perfectly fine in the morning, It was snowing for the whole weekend, the car was out in the snow. When i joined the interstate, the car started making a whining noise. A couple of miles later when i let go the throttle there was a big clunky noise. I took the exit and looked at the engine and it wont make noise when in neutral. Then i tried shifting into 1st gear and it won't go in first. The shifter knob got locked in various positions until i could actually get it into 1st and drive. The whining noise continued. Reverse was even tougher than 1st. Once in 1st, going into 2nd, 3rd,4th,5th isn't that hard and it could reach 70 mph as well but with the noise still on. I drove 20 miles to get back home Could you please advise what exactly is wrong?
My car has 17965 miles.
My car has a manual transmission.