What was going on when I was born?

HOUSTON, Jan. 14 After the most significant slowdown in a decade, the pace of oil and gas drilling in the United States has quickened markedly in recent weeks.

TUCSON, ARIZ. WHEN scientists and developers used to speak of making deserts bloom, they had in mind vast irrigation projects nourishing cotton, fruits and vegetables, crops transplanted from humid regions. The successes have been many, but the deserts keep...

IN A LABORATORY that doubles as a lounge at Harvard University, a pack-a-day student sits studying. She can smoke when ever she wants, but when she does light up, she has to use a plastic cigarette holder.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Jan. 14 Out here in the rugged Afghan countryside, a harsh brown land of mountains and deserts, the Soviet troops who came two weeks ago are rarely seen anymore, though they are much discussed in tones of fear and hatred.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 19 With a warning that lung cancer among American women is increasing dramatically, the Surgeon General of the United States said today that within three years lung cancer could become the leading cancer killer of women, overtaking breast cancer.

TEHERAN, Iran, Jan. 14 The ruling Revolutionary Council announced today that all journalists working for American news organizations would be expelled, from Iran.

The stock market registered a moderate gain yesterday in continued heavy trading with the precious-metal, copper and some special-situation issues making the biggest advances.

RALPH Nader, the consumer advocate, released his long-awaited report on Educational Testing Service yesterday and charged that the country's largest college admission testing organization makes "false and unsubstantiated" claims for its tests.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 14 The Carter Administration is divided over a plan put forward by Zbigniew Brzezinski, its national security adviser, to step up economic warfare by denying the Soviet Union the American phosphates it had been counting on to build fertilizer production and expand grain output.

ALBANY, Jan. 14--During unusual simultaneous sessions of the Senate and Assembly, the Legislature passed a bill today that would reinstate the death penalty for some first-degree murders in New York.

Beyond the electronic security devices at the entrance to the Immigration and Naturalization Service's offices in lower Manhattan, the line begins. It twists and turns across the lobby, like fingers folding into a fist, as individuals from a halfdozen countries become trapped in common emotions anxiety, confusion and fear.