The Tangier American Legation (; ), officially the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies (TALIMS), is a building in the medina of Tangier, Morocco. Formerly the chancery of the United States diplomatic mission to Morocco, it was the first American public property abroad and is the only U.S. National Historic Landmark located in a foreign country. The legation was established on May 17, 1821. Sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah issued a proclamation recognizing U.S. independence from Great Britain on December 20, 1777, making his nation the first to do so. The building was gifted by the sultan to the U.S. government to serve as a diplomatic post, for which it served for the next 140 years. After Morocco's diplomatic capital moved to Rabat in 1956, the building served a variety of government functions, before gradually falling into neglect and disrepair. In 1976, former U.S. diplomats established the nonprofit Tangier American Legation Museum Society to restore and preserve the structure; the site has since served as a cultural center, museum, and research library, concentrating on Arabic language studies. The Tangier American Legation is considered a symbol of the historic cultural and diplomatic relations between the U.S. and the Kingdom of Morocco, and of long-running American engagement with the wider Islamic world. In recognition of its historic and cultural importance, the site was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1981 and designated a National Historic Landmark the following year; it is one of only 39 properties owned by the U.S. Department of State listed in the Register of Culturally Significant Property. Diplomatic history The legation is an elaborate Moorish-style building of stuccoed masonry. This complex structure contains the two-story mud and stone building presented to the United States in 1821 by Sultan Moulay Suliman. The first property acquired abroad by the United States government, it housed the United States Legation and Consulate for 140 years, the longest period any building abroad has been occupied as a United States diplomatic post. It is symbolic of the 1786 Moroccan–American Treaty of Friendship, which is still in force today. The complex expanded over the years as the surrounding houses were bought up. During World War II it served as headquarters for United States intelligence agents. After the move to Rabat as the diplomatic capital in 1956, when the country gained its independence, the Legation was abandoned as a diplomatic building. Over