Update version number and release date.
diff --git a/README b/README
index c81d8b3..c35c77e 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
-This is Python version 2.3 alpha 2
-==================================
+This is Python version 2.3 beta 1
+=================================
 
 Copyright (c) 2001, 2002, 2003 Python Software Foundation.
 All rights reserved.