diff --git a/docs/releases/1.4.txt b/docs/releases/1.4.txt
index cb0f01ed7d..fa583ffdb4 100644
--- a/docs/releases/1.4.txt
+++ b/docs/releases/1.4.txt
@@ -773,11 +773,11 @@ object, Django raises an exception.
 ``MySQLdb``-specific exceptions
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
-The MySQL backend could raise :class:`MySQLdb.OperationalError`
-when a query triggered an exception. This bug was fixed and
-:class:`django.db.utils.DatabaseError` is now raised instead.
-If you were testing for :class:`MySQLdb.OperationalError`,
-you must update your ``except`` clauses.
+The MySQL backend historically has raised :class:`MySQLdb.OperationalError`
+when a query triggered an exception. We've fixed this bug, and we now raise
+:class:`django.db.utils.DatabaseError` instead. If you were testing for
+:class:`MySQLdb.OperationalError`, you'll need to update your ``except``
+clauses.
 
 Database connection's thread-locality
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~