diff --git a/README b/README
index 8cf6f4fffdf..dd32cf44f8b 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
-This is Python version 2.3 beta 1
-=================================
+This is Python version 2.3 release candidate 1
+==============================================
 
 Copyright (c) 2001, 2002, 2003 Python Software Foundation.
 All rights reserved.