diff --git a/Doc/whatsnew/3.5.rst b/Doc/whatsnew/3.5.rst
index 7fb0fd5..3e44aa2 100644
--- a/Doc/whatsnew/3.5.rst
+++ b/Doc/whatsnew/3.5.rst
@@ -355,6 +355,14 @@
 * None yet.
 
 
+Removed
+=======
+
+* The ``__version__`` attribute has been dropped from the email package.  The
+  email code hasn't been shipped separately from the stdlib for a long time,
+  and the ``__version__`` string was not updated in the last few releases.
+
+
 Porting to Python 3.5
 =====================
 
diff --git a/Lib/email/__init__.py b/Lib/email/__init__.py
index ff16f6a..fae8724 100644
--- a/Lib/email/__init__.py
+++ b/Lib/email/__init__.py
@@ -4,8 +4,6 @@
 
 """A package for parsing, handling, and generating email messages."""
 
-__version__ = '5.1.0'
-
 __all__ = [
     'base64mime',
     'charset',
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index dda3843..f66a51e 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -159,6 +159,10 @@
 Library
 -------
 
+- Issue #22508: The email.__version__ variable has been removed; the email
+  code is no longer shipped separately from the stdlib, and __version__
+  hasn't been updated in several releases.
+
 - Issue #20076: Added non derived UTF-8 aliases to locale aliases table.
 
 - Issue #20079: Added locales supported in glibc 2.18 to locale alias table.