diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 7cd457c7652..b670c643e3a 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -54,6 +54,8 @@ Build
 
 - Stop packaging versioncheck tool (already done for rc1).
 
+- Accept Oracle Berkeley DB 4.8, 5.0 and 5.1 as backend for the dbm extension.
+
 Tests
 -----
 
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 2eb4b8549b2..b2f91ef02de 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -729,7 +729,7 @@ class PyBuildExt(build_ext):
         # a release.  Most open source OSes come with one or more
         # versions of BerkeleyDB already installed.
 
-        max_db_ver = (4, 7)
+        max_db_ver = (5, 1)
         min_db_ver = (3, 3)
         db_setup_debug = False   # verbose debug prints from this script?