diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 70f01b4403b..9215a0ecc08 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ Nokogiri follows [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/), please see the [REA
 
 ---
 
-## next / unreleased
+## v1.16.0.rc1 / 2023-12-13
 
 #### Ruby
 
diff --git a/lib/nokogiri/version/constant.rb b/lib/nokogiri/version/constant.rb
index 01030a1b4f7..1fcdb3c8e37 100644
--- a/lib/nokogiri/version/constant.rb
+++ b/lib/nokogiri/version/constant.rb
@@ -2,5 +2,5 @@
 
 module Nokogiri
   # The version of Nokogiri you are using
-  VERSION = "1.16.0.dev"
+  VERSION = "1.16.0.rc1"
 end