diff --git a/python-doc.changes b/python-doc.changes
index 370e369..90fec7e 100644
--- a/python-doc.changes
+++ b/python-doc.changes
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ Fri Dec 12 17:11:51 UTC 2014 - jmatejek@suse.com
 
 - update to 2.7.9
 - drop HTML doc tarball, build HTML documentation from source
+- set fixed doc build date, lower sphinx requirement (for older openSUSE)
 
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
 Tue Sep 30 15:32:07 UTC 2014 - jmatejek@suse.com
diff --git a/python-doc.spec b/python-doc.spec
index 8682b55..8924ad6 100644
--- a/python-doc.spec
+++ b/python-doc.spec
@@ -101,7 +101,15 @@ sed -i 's/^version_required/dnl version_required/' configure.ac
 # COMMON-PREP-END
 
 %build
+TODAY_DATE=`date -r %{S:0} "+%B %d, %Y"`
+# TODO use not date of tarball but date of latest patch
+
 pushd Doc
+sed -i "s/^today = .*/today = '$TODAY_DATE'/" conf.py
+%if 0%{?suse_version} < 1320
+# lower sphinx version requirement, docs seem to work fine with 1.1
+sed -i "s/^needs_sphinx = .*/needs_sphinx = '1.1'/" conf.py
+%endif
 make html
 popd