diff --git a/IPython/core/tests/test_history.py b/IPython/core/tests/test_history.py
index e4496d2..b292a64 100644
--- a/IPython/core/tests/test_history.py
+++ b/IPython/core/tests/test_history.py
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ from IPython.core.history import HistoryManager, extract_hist_ranges
 from IPython.utils import py3compat
 
 def setUp():
-    nt.assert_equal(sys.getdefaultencoding(), "utf-8" if py3compat.PY3 else "ascii")
+    nt.assert_equal(sys.getdefaultencoding(), "utf-8")
 
 def test_history():
     ip = get_ipython()