diff --git a/AUTHORS.rst b/AUTHORS.rst
index 7cc76d6b..50e7e1b5 100644
--- a/AUTHORS.rst
+++ b/AUTHORS.rst
@@ -95,3 +95,4 @@ Patches and Suggestions
 - Michael Kelly
 - Michael Newman <newmaniese@gmail.com>
 - Jonty Wareing <jonty@jonty.co.uk>
+- Shivaram Lingamneni
diff --git a/requests/models.py b/requests/models.py
index 26bc518d..60f58d2a 100644
--- a/requests/models.py
+++ b/requests/models.py
@@ -27,7 +27,8 @@ from .exceptions import (
     URLRequired, SSLError, MissingSchema, InvalidSchema, InvalidURL)
 from .utils import (
     get_encoding_from_headers, stream_untransfer, guess_filename, requote_uri,
-    dict_from_string, stream_decode_response_unicode, get_netrc_auth)
+    dict_from_string, stream_decode_response_unicode, get_netrc_auth,
+    DEFAULT_CA_BUNDLE_PATH)
 from .compat import (
     urlparse, urlunparse, urljoin, urlsplit, urlencode, str, bytes,
     SimpleCookie, is_py2)
@@ -524,7 +525,7 @@ class Request(object):
                     conn = connectionpool.connection_from_url(url)
             except LocationParseError as e:
                 raise InvalidURL(e)
-                
+
         if url.startswith('https') and self.verify:
 
             cert_loc = None
@@ -537,13 +538,15 @@ class Request(object):
             if not cert_loc and self.config.get('trust_env'):
                 cert_loc = os.environ.get('REQUESTS_CA_BUNDLE')
 
-            # Curl compatiblity.
+            # Curl compatibility.
             if not cert_loc and self.config.get('trust_env'):
                 cert_loc = os.environ.get('CURL_CA_BUNDLE')
 
-            # Use the awesome certifi list.
             if not cert_loc:
-                cert_loc = __import__('certifi').where()
+                cert_loc = DEFAULT_CA_BUNDLE_PATH
+
+            if not cert_loc:
+                raise Exception("Could not find a suitable SSL CA certificate bundle.")
 
             conn.cert_reqs = 'CERT_REQUIRED'
             conn.ca_certs = cert_loc
diff --git a/requests/utils.py b/requests/utils.py
index ab6672f9..ed9ffb1c 100644
--- a/requests/utils.py
+++ b/requests/utils.py
@@ -21,9 +21,36 @@ from .compat import parse_http_list as _parse_list_header
 from .compat import quote, cookielib, SimpleCookie, is_py2, urlparse
 from .compat import basestring, bytes, str
 
+CERTIFI_BUNDLE_PATH = None
+try:
+    # see if requests's own CA certificate bundle is installed
+    import certifi
+    CERTIFI_BUNDLE_PATH = certifi.where()
+except ImportError:
+    pass
 
 NETRC_FILES = ('.netrc', '_netrc')
 
+# common paths for the OS's CA certificate bundle
+POSSIBLE_CA_BUNDLE_PATHS = [
+        # Red Hat, CentOS, Fedora and friends (provided by the ca-certificates package):
+        '/etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt',
+        # Ubuntu, Debian, and friends (provided by the ca-certificates package):
+        '/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt',
+        # FreeBSD (provided by the ca_root_nss package):
+        '/usr/local/share/certs/ca-root-nss.crt',
+]
+
+def get_os_ca_bundle_path():
+    """Try to pick an available CA certificate bundle provided by the OS."""
+    for path in POSSIBLE_CA_BUNDLE_PATHS:
+        if os.path.exists(path):
+            return path
+    return None
+
+# if certifi is installed, use its CA bundle;
+# otherwise, try and use the OS bundle
+DEFAULT_CA_BUNDLE_PATH = CERTIFI_BUNDLE_PATH or get_os_ca_bundle_path()
 
 def dict_to_sequence(d):
     """Returns an internal sequence dictionary update."""
diff --git a/tests/test_requests_https.py b/tests/test_requests_https.py
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..c6ea8f35
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_requests_https.py
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+
+import sys, os
+import json
+import unittest
+
+# Path hack.
+sys.path.insert(0, os.path.abspath('..'))
+import requests
+
+class HTTPSTest(unittest.TestCase):
+    """Smoke test for https functionality."""
+
+    smoke_url = "https://github.com"
+
+    def perform_smoke_test(self, verify=False):
+        result = requests.get(self.smoke_url, verify=verify)
+        self.assertEqual(result.status_code, 200)
+
+    def test_smoke(self):
+        """Smoke test without verification."""
+        self.perform_smoke_test(verify=False)
+
+    def test_smoke_verified(self):
+        """Smoke test with SSL verification."""
+        self.perform_smoke_test(verify=True)
+
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    unittest.main()