What was going on when I was born?

After a morning rush of moderate proportions, throngs of homebound commuters jammed Pennsylvania Station to overflowing yesterday afternoon as the Long Island Rail Road resumed operations after a 31-hour shutdown that compounded the problems of the transit strike.

TEHERAN, Iran, April 3 Yet another chance to win the transfer of the American embassy hostages from the control of the militants to the Iranian Government slipped away tonight as a divided Revolutionary Council failed to reach agreement in a heated five-hour meeting.

ATLANTA, April 3--The judge in the bank fraud and conspiracy trial of Bert Lance indicated today that he would dismiss the conspiracy count against the former Federal Budget Director and three of his North Georgia friends.

ALBANY, April 3 Governor Carey, saying the actions were needed to bring New York State's 1980-81 budget into balance, today vetoed $240 million of increases made by the Legislature in his budget proposals and ordered state agencies to prepare to lay off 5,000 employees.

Negotiators for the striking New York City transit workers and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority resumed talks briefly yesterday, but the chief mediator in the dispute said that the positions of both sides had hardened and that a settlement was not imminent.

They are the Big Three of business magazines. When it comes to competitiveness, they can be as fierce as the three automotive giants in Detroit whose woes they cover. They have as sharp an eye for profits as the Wall Street that they chronicle. And when they are not busily rooting out what's new on Madison Avenue, they are as avidly interested in what Madison Avenue thinks of them.

DETROIT, April 3 Retail sales of new cars made by the nation's Big Three auto makers plunged 30.4 percent in the final 10-day selling period of March, despite showroom price cuts and heavy sales promotions, the manufacturers reported today.

PARIS, April 3 Algeria has cut off deliveries of natural gas to its major American customer in an effort to obtain higher prices, trade sources in Algiers confirmed in a telephone conversation today. The amount of gas involved represents only 2 percent of total United States gas consumption but about 30 percent of American imports.

While they were having trouble last week raising millions of dollars to meet margin calls on silver contracts, Nelson Bunker Hunt and W. Herbert Hunt purchased $2 million worth of shares in the Gulf Resources and Chemical Corporation, a major silver producer the Hunt Brothers already owned in part.