diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index ec278c2a9c..9c8d7304ca 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson</groupId>
     <artifactId>jackson-base</artifactId>
-    <version>2.16.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>2.16.0</version>
   </parent>
   <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>
   <artifactId>jackson-core</artifactId>
diff --git a/release-notes/VERSION-2.x b/release-notes/VERSION-2.x
index 951e5c338b..c7673b22bb 100644
--- a/release-notes/VERSION-2.x
+++ b/release-notes/VERSION-2.x
@@ -14,12 +14,7 @@ a pure JSON library.
 === Releases ===
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
-Not yet released:
-
-#1136: Change parsing error message to mention `-INF`
-- Make `JacksonFeatureSet` serializable
-
-2.16.0-rc1 (20-Oct-2023)
+2.16.0-rc1 (15-Nov-2023)
 
 #991: Change `StreamReadFeature.INCLUDE_SOURCE_IN_LOCATION` default to `false`
   in Jackson 2.16
@@ -54,6 +49,8 @@ Not yet released:
 #1081: Make `ByteSourceJsonBootstrapper` use `StringReader` for < 8KiB byte[] inputs
  (contributed by @schlosna)
 #1089: Allow pluggable buffer recycling via new `BufferRecyclerPool` extension point
+#1136: Change parsing error message to mention `-INF`
+- Make `JacksonFeatureSet` serializable
 
 2.15.3 (12-Oct-2023)