diff --git a/doc/utilities.rst b/doc/utilities.rst
index a871496f..afd99384 100644
--- a/doc/utilities.rst
+++ b/doc/utilities.rst
@@ -6,6 +6,11 @@ Logging
 
 .. autofunction:: github.enable_console_debug_logging
 
+Error Handling
+--------------
+
+.. autoclass:: github.GithubException.GithubException()
+
 Default argument
 ----------------
 
diff --git a/github/GithubException.py b/github/GithubException.py
index d005c7cb..d244564d 100644
--- a/github/GithubException.py
+++ b/github/GithubException.py
@@ -17,13 +17,41 @@
 
 class GithubException(Exception):
     """
-    This class represents GithubExceptions as returned for example by http://developer.github.com/v3/todo
+    Error handling in PyGithub is done with exceptions. This class is the base of all exceptions raised by PyGithub.
+
+    Some other types of exceptions might be raised by underlying libraries, for example for network-related issues.
     """
 
     def __init__(self, status, data):
         Exception.__init__(self)
-        self.status = status
-        self.data = data
+        self.__status = status
+        self.__data = data
+
+    @property
+    def status(self):
+        """
+        The status returned by the Github API
+        """
+        return self.__status
+
+    @property
+    def data(self):
+        """
+        The (decoded) data returned by the Github API
+        """
+        return self.__data
 
     def __str__(self):
         return str(self.status) + " " + str(self.data)
+
+
+class BadCredentialsException(GithubException):
+    """
+    Exception raised in case of bad credentials (when Github API replies with a 401 or 403 HTML status)
+    """
+
+
+class UnknownObjectException(GithubException):
+    """
+    Exception raised a non-existing object is requested (when Github API replies with a 404 HTML status)
+    """
diff --git a/github/Requester.py b/github/Requester.py
index 1eb92f84..e4461a38 100644
--- a/github/Requester.py
+++ b/github/Requester.py
@@ -96,9 +96,16 @@ class Requester:
     def __check(self, status, responseHeaders, output):
         output = self.__structuredFromJson(output)
         if status >= 400:
-            raise GithubException.GithubException(status, output)
+            raise self.__createException(status, output)
         return responseHeaders, output
 
+    def __createException(self, status, output):
+        if status == 401 and output["message"] == "Bad credentials":
+            return GithubException.BadCredentialsException(status, output)
+        if status == 404 and output["message"] == "Not Found":
+            return GithubException.UnknownObjectException(status, output)
+        return GithubException.GithubException(status, output)
+
     def __structuredFromJson(self, data):
         if len(data) == 0:
             return None
diff --git a/github/__init__.py b/github/__init__.py
index f414f18e..fc068df0 100644
--- a/github/__init__.py
+++ b/github/__init__.py
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ All classes inherit from :class:`github.GithubObject.GithubObject`.
 import logging
 
 from MainClass import Github
-from GithubException import GithubException
+from GithubException import GithubException, BadCredentialsException, UnknownObjectException
 from InputFileContent import InputFileContent
 from InputGitAuthor import InputGitAuthor
 from InputGitTreeElement import InputGitTreeElement
diff --git a/github/tests/Exceptions.py b/github/tests/Exceptions.py
index c4f10d40..d14ae241 100644
--- a/github/tests/Exceptions.py
+++ b/github/tests/Exceptions.py
@@ -88,3 +88,11 @@ class Exceptions(Framework.TestCase):  # To stay compatible with Python 2.6, we
             else:
                 self.assertEqual(str(exception), "401 {'message': 'Bad credentials'}")  # pragma no cover (Covered with Python 3)
         self.assertTrue(raised)
+
+
+class SpecificExceptions(Framework.TestCase):
+    def testBadCredentials(self):
+        self.assertRaises(github.BadCredentialsException, lambda: github.Github("BadUser", "BadPassword").get_user().login)
+
+    def testUnknownObject(self):
+        self.assertRaises(github.UnknownObjectException, lambda: self.g.get_user().get_repo("Xxx"))
diff --git a/github/tests/ReplayData/SpecificExceptions.testBadCredentials.txt b/github/tests/ReplayData/SpecificExceptions.testBadCredentials.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..f772eabe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/github/tests/ReplayData/SpecificExceptions.testBadCredentials.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+https
+GET
+api.github.com
+None
+/user
+{'Authorization': 'Basic login_and_password_removed'}
+null
+401
+[('status', '401 Unauthorized'), ('content-length', '29'), ('server', 'nginx/1.0.13'), ('connection', 'keep-alive'), ('etag', '"ca6a3702f840b6bff0bb1bca6be0337c"'), ('date', 'Sat, 02 Jun 2012 12:12:32 GMT'), ('content-type', 'application/json; charset=utf-8')]
+{"message":"Bad credentials"}
+
diff --git a/github/tests/ReplayData/SpecificExceptions.testUnknownObject.txt b/github/tests/ReplayData/SpecificExceptions.testUnknownObject.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..5298158c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/github/tests/ReplayData/SpecificExceptions.testUnknownObject.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+https
+GET
+api.github.com
+None
+/user
+{'Authorization': 'Basic login_and_password_removed'}
+null
+200
+[('status', '200 OK'), ('x-ratelimit-remaining', '4971'), ('content-length', '801'), ('server', 'nginx/1.0.13'), ('connection', 'keep-alive'), ('x-ratelimit-limit', '5000'), ('etag', '"0e6c8f1cbb0c4f0eae96d8a76de9a43f"'), ('date', 'Sat, 02 Jun 2012 12:11:46 GMT'), ('content-type', 'application/json; charset=utf-8')]
+{"type":"User","total_private_repos":5,"company":"Criteo","gravatar_id":"b68de5ae38616c296fa345d2b9df2225","login":"jacquev6","public_gists":3,"email":"vincent@vincent-jacques.net","owned_private_repos":5,"avatar_url":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b68de5ae38616c296fa345d2b9df2225?d=https://a248.e.akamai.net/assets.github.com%2Fimages%2Fgravatars%2Fgravatar-140.png","private_gists":5,"collaborators":0,"created_at":"2010-07-09T06:10:06Z","blog":"http://vincent-jacques.net","location":"Paris, France","url":"https://api.github.com/users/jacquev6","following":24,"disk_usage":16988,"public_repos":10,"name":"Vincent Jacques","hireable":false,"followers":13,"html_url":"https://github.com/jacquev6","id":327146,"plan":{"private_repos":5,"collaborators":1,"space":614400,"name":"micro"},"bio":""}
+
+https
+GET
+api.github.com
+None
+/repos/jacquev6/Xxx
+{'Authorization': 'Basic login_and_password_removed'}
+null
+404
+[('status', '404 Not Found'), ('x-ratelimit-remaining', '4970'), ('content-length', '23'), ('server', 'nginx/1.0.13'), ('connection', 'keep-alive'), ('x-ratelimit-limit', '5000'), ('etag', '"e66a7a6c91e2c26803f3f49feb7a883f"'), ('date', 'Sat, 02 Jun 2012 12:11:47 GMT'), ('content-type', 'application/json; charset=utf-8')]
+{"message":"Not Found"}
+