diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index c1bfd8174e..af31b63d64 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,5 +1,12 @@
 Version history:
 ------- -------
+ 1.5.97 - 27 May 2001
+         o first beta release
+         o feature freeze
+         o updated documentation
+         o updated Norwegian and Portuguese translations
+         o bug fixes
+
  1.5.96 - 20 May 2001
          o second alpha release
          o updated user documentation
diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index 7321b54b36..8f0ec7fe22 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ dnl Process this file with autoconf to produce a configure script.
 ### commands depend on them):
 
 AC_INIT(src/guile/gnucash.h)
-AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(gnucash,1.5.96)
+AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(gnucash,1.5.97)
 AM_CONFIG_HEADER(config.h)
 
 AC_CANONICAL_HOST