diff --git a/CHANGES.rst b/CHANGES.rst
index b027fb970..776681de5 100644
--- a/CHANGES.rst
+++ b/CHANGES.rst
@@ -1,3 +1,53 @@
+Changes in synapse v0.16.0-rc1 (2016-06-03)
+===========================================
+
+Features:
+
+* Add email notifications for missed messages (PR #759, #786, #799, #810, #815,
+  #821)
+* Add a ``url_preview_ip_range_whitelist`` config param (PR #760)
+* Add /report endpoint (PR #762)
+* Add basic ignore user API (PR #763)
+* Add an openidish mechanism for proving that you own a given user_id (PR #765)
+* Allow clients to specify a server_name to avoid 'No known servers' (PR #794)
+* Add secondary_directory_servers option to fetch room list from other servers
+  (PR #808, #813)
+
+Changes:
+
+* Report per request metrics for all of the things using request_handler (PR
+  #756)
+* Correctly handle ``NULL`` password hashes from the database (PR #775)
+* Allow receipts for events we haven't seen in the db (PR #784)
+* Make synctl read a cache factor from config file (PR #785)
+* Increment badge count per missed convo, not per msg (PR #793)
+* Special case m.room.third_party_invite event auth to match invites (PR #814)
+
+
+Bug fixes:
+
+* Fix typo in event_auth servlet path (PR #757)
+* Fix password reset (PR #758)
+
+
+Performance improvements:
+
+* Reduce database inserts when sending transactions (PR #767)
+* Queue events by room for persistence (PR #768)
+* Add cache to ``get_user_by_id`` (PR #772)
+* Add and use ``get_domain_from_id`` (PR #773)
+* Use tree cache for ``get_linearized_receipts_for_room`` (PR #779)
+* Remove unused indices (PR #782)
+* Add caches to ``bulk_get_push_rules*`` (PR #804)
+* Cache ``get_event_reference_hashes`` (PR #806)
+* Add ``get_users_with_read_receipts_in_room`` cache (PR #809)
+* Use state to calculate ``get_users_in_room`` (PR #811)
+* Load push rules in storage layer so that they get cached (PR #825)
+* Make ``get_joined_hosts_for_room`` use get_users_in_room (PR #828)
+* Poke notifier on next reactor tick (PR #829)
+* Change CacheMetrics to be quicker (PR #830)
+
+
 Changes in synapse v0.15.0-rc1 (2016-04-26)
 ===========================================
 
diff --git a/synapse/__init__.py b/synapse/__init__.py
index 988318f5e..3b290db79 100644
--- a/synapse/__init__.py
+++ b/synapse/__init__.py
@@ -16,4 +16,4 @@
 """ This is a reference implementation of a Matrix home server.
 """
 
-__version__ = "0.15.0-rc1"
+__version__ = "0.16.0-rc1"