diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 1d4b8ec024..2b6e3d5883 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -1,8 +1,5 @@
-Release 1.5 alpha3 (in development)
-===================================
-
-Incompatible changes
---------------------
+Release 1.5 beta1 (released Nov 6, 2016)
+========================================
 
 Features added
 --------------
diff --git a/sphinx/__init__.py b/sphinx/__init__.py
index 59b731d5b6..3647f5ebb9 100644
--- a/sphinx/__init__.py
+++ b/sphinx/__init__.py
@@ -15,13 +15,13 @@
 import sys
 from os import path
 
-__version__  = '1.5a3'
-__released__ = '1.5a3'  # used when Sphinx builds its own docs
+__version__  = '1.5b1'
+__released__ = '1.5b1'  # used when Sphinx builds its own docs
 
 # version info for better programmatic use
 # possible values for 3rd element: 'alpha', 'beta', 'rc', 'final'
 # 'final' has 0 as the last element
-version_info = (1, 5, 0, 'alpha', 3)
+version_info = (1, 5, 0, 'beta', 1)
 
 package_dir = path.abspath(path.dirname(__file__))