diff --git a/Lib/httplib.py b/Lib/httplib.py
index 526509c..e1ace4d 100644
--- a/Lib/httplib.py
+++ b/Lib/httplib.py
@@ -879,6 +879,9 @@
                         host_enc = self.host.encode("ascii")
                     except UnicodeEncodeError:
                         host_enc = self.host.encode("idna")
+                    # Wrap the IPv6 Host Header with [] (RFC 2732)
+                    if host_enc.find(':') >= 0:
+                        host_enc = "[" + host_enc + "]"
                     if self.port == self.default_port:
                         self.putheader('Host', host_enc)
                     else:
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_httplib.py b/Lib/test/test_httplib.py
index 74301ff..d7b73e1 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_httplib.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_httplib.py
@@ -97,6 +97,26 @@
         conn.putheader('Content-length',42)
         self.assertTrue('Content-length: 42' in conn._buffer)
 
+    def test_ipv6host_header(self):
+        # Default host header on IPv6 transaction should wrapped by [] if
+        # its actual IPv6 address
+        expected = 'GET /foo HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: [2001::]:81\r\n' \
+                   'Accept-Encoding: identity\r\n\r\n'
+        conn = httplib.HTTPConnection('[2001::]:81')
+        sock = FakeSocket('')
+        conn.sock = sock
+        conn.request('GET', '/foo')
+        self.assertTrue(sock.data.startswith(expected))
+
+        expected = 'GET /foo HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: [2001:102A::]\r\n' \
+                   'Accept-Encoding: identity\r\n\r\n'
+        conn = httplib.HTTPConnection('[2001:102A::]')
+        sock = FakeSocket('')
+        conn.sock = sock
+        conn.request('GET', '/foo')
+        self.assertTrue(sock.data.startswith(expected))
+
+
 class BasicTest(TestCase):
     def test_status_lines(self):
         # Test HTTP status lines
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index f0afdb4..b45fe76 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -13,6 +13,8 @@
 Library
 -------
 
+- Issue #5111: IPv6 Host in the Header is wrapped inside [ ]. Patch by Chandru.
+
 
 What's New in Python 2.7.1 release candidate 1?
 ===============================================