Hard on the heels of Alex, Washoe dies.

Washoe was "the first non-human to acquire human language" - a female chimp more than 42 years old with a vocabulary of around 250 sign language words. Like Alex the African Gray parrot, it's debatable whether Washoe had acquired language or just words. The fascinating part of the article to me is that she actually taught three younger chimps.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/10/31/signing.chimp.dies.ap/index.html