What was going on when I was born?

BONN, Jan. 27--Europe's new currency system is ending its first year of operation back where it started--embroiled in disputes over its value.

TEHERAN, Iran, Jan. 27 Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, the Economic and Financial Affairs Minister who apparently has been elected President of Iran by an overwhelming majority, said today that the major responsibility for ending the crisis over the hostages being held in the American Embassy lay with the United States.

In the last few weeks, the world has witnessed an extraordinary financial turbulence. The speculative fever that has already racked real estate, commodities and the currency markets has suddenly centered on gold, the traditional refuge from monetary instability.

Nearly 700 people have been given high-paying jobs at Board of Education headquarters and in local school districts through a hiring system that bypasses Civil Service law, often requires minimal qualifications and rewards some holders of administrative jobs with educational licenses and the promise of tenure, according to school documents.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Jan. 27 President Mohammad Zia ul-Haq of Pakistan urged Islamic nations today to unite in demanding the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. He also asked for a collective defense arrangement to ward off future invasions of Moslem nations.

PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 27 It was supposed to be the "limp and whimper" show in today's final of the $250,000 United States Pro Indoor tennis championships. Jimmy Connors, the defender, was nursing a groin injury and John McEnroe, his challenger, had been complaining vehemently about the officiating.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 27 When President Carter's Cabinet secretaries met at the White House for a preview of the Federal budget that is to be submitted to Congress tomorrow, James T. McIntyre Jr., director of the Office of Management and Budget, informed them in somber tones that Mr. Carter had decided at the last minute to cut spending by a staggering $100 billion. The secretaries stared in disbelief.

Some key officials in the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development have taken bribes and kickbacks to certify deficient and nonexistent repair work on city-owned housing, city officials said yesterday.

LONDON, Jan. 27 Economic experts on the Persian Gulf are warning increasingly that overly ambitious plans, bad advice, little experience and hurried spending in the Arab oil-producing countries have created a force that is tearing at the social fabric of these conservative Arab nations and distorting their economies.

Earnings of most of the nation's major bank holding companies climbed faster than the overall inflation rate last year in other words, registered a "real" increase in profit despite an income squeeze in the fourth quarter.