diff --git a/IPython/frontend/html/notebook/static/js/codecell.js b/IPython/frontend/html/notebook/static/js/codecell.js
index 7b367a6..79a8140 100644
--- a/IPython/frontend/html/notebook/static/js/codecell.js
+++ b/IPython/frontend/html/notebook/static/js/codecell.js
@@ -184,7 +184,6 @@ var IPython = (function (IPython) {
         // While this seems to fix the issue, this should be fixed
         // in CodeMirror proper.
         var s = this.code_mirror.getValue();
-        if (s === '') this.code_mirror.setValue('.');
         this.code_mirror.focus();
         if (s === '') this.code_mirror.setValue('');
     };