Until 1774, the region belonged to the Crimean Khanate.

Kherson was founded in 1778 by Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin, on the orders of Catherine the Great. The city was built under the supervision of General Ivan Gannibal on the site of a small fortress called Aleksanderschanz.

The name Kherson is a contraction of Chersonesos, an ancient Greek colony founded approximately 2500 years ago in the southwestern part of Crimea. One of the first buildings in the Kherson Fort was the Church of St. Catherine, where Potemkin was eventually buried. The last tarpan was caught near Kherson in 1866. During World War II, Kherson was occupied by the German Army from 21 August 1941 till 13 March 1944.

During the Ukrainian revolution of 2014, the city was a scene of riots against President Yanukovich, during which the main Lenin statue of the city was toppled by protesters. After the revolution the city became relatively calm.

Main sights

• St. Catherine's Cathedral, Kherson
• The Church of St. Catherine - was built in the 1780s, supposedly to Ivan Starov's designs, and contains the tomb of Prince Potemkin.
• Jewish cemetery - Kershon has a large Jewish community which was established in the mid-nineteenth century. From 1959 until 1990 there was no synagogue in Kherson. Since then, both Jewish life and Kherson have really grown and developed in an atmosphere of peace. Nevertheless, the Jewish cemetery has regularly suffered from acts of vandalism. The graves have been repeatedly covered with trash and the tombstones destroyed and desecrated. On 6 April 2012, an act of vandalism occurred at the Jewish cemetery on the most important festival in the Jewish calendar, the festival of Passover. The fire, which was set intentionally, immediately spread over an area of about 700 square meters and caused severe damage to the graves and tombstones.
• Kherson TV Tower - a famous construction located in the city.
• Adziogol Lighthouse - a hyperboloid structure designed by V.G.Shukhov, 1911