Founded on January 30, 1960, and originally based in Oakland, California, the Raiders played their first regular season game on September 11, 1960, as a charter member of the American Football League (AFL).

On February 9, 1960, after rejecting offers from the NFL's Washington Redskins and the AFL's Los Angeles Chargers, Erdelatz accepted the Raiders' head coaching position.

In January 1960, the Raiders were established in Oakland, and, because of NFL interference with the original eighth franchise owner, were the last team of eight in the new American Football League to select players, thus relegated to the remaining talent available (see below).

Led by quarterback Daryle Lamonica,[26] acquired in a trade with the Buffalo Bills, the Raiders finished the 1967 season with a 13–1 record and won the 1967 AFL Championship, defeating the Houston Oilers 40–7.

In 1970, the AFL–NFL merger was completed after four years and the Raiders joined the Western Division of the American Football Conference (actually the AFL West with the same teams as in 1969, except for the Cincinnati Bengals) in the newly merged NFL.

Dominant on defense, with the crushing hits of safeties Jack Tatum and George Atkinson and cornerback Skip Thomas, the Raiders regularly held first place in the AFC West, entering the playoffs nearly every season.

According to Madden and Davis, the Raiders relied on quick movement by their wide receivers on the outside sidelines – the deep threat, or 'long ball' – more so than the Steelers of that year, whose offense was far more run-oriented than it would become later in the 1970s.

Forced to adapt to the frozen field of Three Rivers Stadium, with receivers slipping and unable to make quick moves to beat coverage, the Raiders lost, 16–10.

In 1976, the Raiders came from behind dramatically to beat Pittsburgh 31–28 in the season opener and continued to cement its reputation for dirty play by knocking WR Lynn Swann out for two weeks with a clothesline to the helmet.

With the Patriots up by three points in the final two minutes, referee Ben Dreith called roughing the passer on New England's Ray "Sugar Bear" Hamilton after he hit Oakland QB Ken Stabler.

In the midst of the turmoil of Al Davis' attempts to move the team to Los Angeles in 1980, Flores looked to lead the Raiders to their third Super Bowl by finishing the season 11–5 and earning a wild card berth.

The newly minted Los Angeles Raiders finished the strike-shortened 1982 season 8–1 to win the AFC West, but lost in the second round of the playoffs to the Jets.

With seven seconds remaining in the first half, linebacker Jack Squirek intercepted a Joe Theismann swing pass at the Washington five-yard line and scored, sending the Raiders to a 21–3 halftime lead.

The team had another successful regular season in 1984, finishing 11–5, but a three-game losing streak forced them to enter the playoffs as a wild-card, where they fell to the Seahawks in the Wild Card game.

After two more losing seasons (7–9 in 1996 and 4–12 in 1997) under White and his successor, Joe Bugel, Davis selected a new head coach from outside the Raiders organization for only the second time when he hired Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Jon Gruden.

In an effort to bolster their offense, in early 2005 the Raiders acquired Pro Bowl wide receiver Randy Moss via trade with the Minnesota Vikings, and signed free agent running back Lamont Jordan of the New York Jets.

In 2010 the Raiders became the first team in NFL history to go undefeated against their division yet miss the playoffs (6–0 in the AFC West, 8–8 overall, 3 games behind the Jets for the second Wild Card entry).

The Raiders named Green Bay Packers director of football operations Reggie McKenzie as the team's first general manager since Al Davis on January 6, 2012.

The Chargers eventually announced on January 12, 2017, that they would exercise their option to relocate to Los Angeles following the failure of a November 2016 ballot initiative to fund a new stadium in San Diego.

On December 20, 2016, the NFL announced that the Raiders would have seven Pro Bowl selections: Khalil Mack, Derek Carr, Amari Cooper, Donald Penn, Kelechi Osemele, Rodney Hudson and Reggie Nelson.

On December 31, 2017, following a loss to the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 17, head coach Del Rio was fired by Mark Davis after being granted a four-year contract extension prior to the season.

On January 1, 2000, the last game of the 1999 NFL regular season, the Raiders defeated the Chiefs for the first time in Kansas City since 1988 in overtime on a 33-yard field goal kick made by Joe Nedney.

During the 1975 AFC Championship game, Raiders strong safety George Atkinson delivered a hit on Pittsburgh wide receiver Lynn Swann, which left him concussed.

Oakland was then beaten 35–3 by Pittsburgh on November 21, 2010; this game brought out the roughness of the rivalry's 1970s history when Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was punched by Raiders defensive end Richard Seymour following a touchdown.

Late in the game, an incomplete pass, ruled a fumble, by Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was overturned, and New England went on to win in overtime and eventually won the Super Bowl against the heavily favored St. Louis Rams, the Raiders' former crosstown rivals in Los Angeles.

The series ended on November 1, 2018, during a Thursday Night Football broadcast at Levi's Stadium, marking the last time both teams would meet before the Raiders moved to their new home in Las Vegas.

[24][25] In 1972, with Wayne Valley out of the country for several weeks attending the Olympic Games in Munich, Davis's attorneys drafted a revised partnership agreement that made him the new managing general partner, with complete control over all of the Raiders' operations.

[210] When the Raiders moved back from Los Angeles in 1995, the city of Oakland and the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Authority agreed to sell Personal Seat Licenses (PSLs) to help pay for the renovations to their stadium.

[214] In 2003 a number of current and former Oakland players such as Bill Romanowski, Tyrone Wheatley, Barrett Robbins, Chris Cooper and Dana Stubblefield were named as clients of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO).

Conte, BALCO vice president James Valente, weight trainer Greg Anderson and coach Remi Korchemny had supplied a number of high-profile sports stars from the United States and Europe with the Clear and human growth hormone for several years.