diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 08708eb8054..9992e919406 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -1,14 +1,5 @@
-Release 1.7.9 (in development)
-==============================
-
-Dependencies
-------------
-
-Incompatible changes
---------------------
-
-Deprecated
-----------
+Release 1.7.9 (released Sep 05, 2018)
+=====================================
 
 Features added
 --------------
@@ -20,9 +11,6 @@ Bugs fixed
 
 * #5361: crashed on incremental build if document uses include directive
 
-Testing
---------
-
 Release 1.7.8 (released Aug 29, 2018)
 =====================================
 
diff --git a/sphinx/__init__.py b/sphinx/__init__.py
index 144ece04236..ab062554918 100644
--- a/sphinx/__init__.py
+++ b/sphinx/__init__.py
@@ -31,13 +31,13 @@
 warnings.filterwarnings('ignore', "'U' mode is deprecated",
                         DeprecationWarning, module='docutils.io')
 
-__version__ = '1.7.9+'
+__version__ = '1.7.9'
 __released__ = '1.7.9'  # 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, 7, 9, 'beta', 0)
+version_info = (1, 7, 9, 'final', 0)
 
 package_dir = path.abspath(path.dirname(__file__))