What was going on when I was born?

DETROIT, April 16--The General Motors Corporation today announced the indefinite layoffs of 12,000 auto workers.

The bond market, which collapsed last winter and forced the Carter Administration to recast the Federal budget, staged its largest single-day recovery on record yesterday. The prices of bonds rose sharply and interest rates declined accordingly.

WASHINGTON, April 16--The Nuclear Regulatory Commission today approved a limited operating license for the Public Service Electric and Gas Company's Salem II nuclear plant. The commission said, however, that further modifications were needed before the plant could begin generating commercial power.

BOISE, Idaho, April 16--Hard hit by the slowdown in the housing market caused by soaring interest rates, tight credit and the general weakness of the economy, the wood products industry is enduring its most severe downturn since the 1974-75 recession.

MANY a working mother credits her success in part to the live-in housekeeper who tends to the children and the house in her absence. Typically, the housekeeper was not born in the United States and sees the job as a way to provide access to the coveted "green card" that will give her the legal right to work permanently in this country.

MOSCOW, April 16--The now all-butcertain American boycott of the Moscow Olympics is a painful setback to the Soviet Government, but the Soviet people, from Moscow to the deserts of Central Asia, seem to have little understanding of the reasons for it.

WASHINGTON, April 16--The Supreme Court made private civil rights suits against local governments substantially easier to win today. The Court ruled, 5 to 4, that local governments are not entitled to base their defense in such suits on the ground that their employees acted in good faith or committed the civil rights violations unintentionally.

WASHINGTON, April 16--Israel and Egypt have pledged to make a maximum effort to conclude an agreement on Palestinian autonomy by May 26 and to refer any unresolved issues to a special "continuing committee," American officials said today.

The chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority reversed himself yesterday and said that there would be no immediate financial gains for the authority from the new transit contract.

WASHINGTON, April 16--Friction between the White House and R. Robert Russell, director of the Council on Wage and Price Stability, was confirmed today, lending weight to speculation that he would resign soon.

ALBANY, April 16--The State Senate's Democratic minority blocked almost every effort today to override Governor Carey's vetoes of $240 million of budget items, including a $116.7 million increase in state revenue sharing aid to localities. The action touched off a new round of hostility between Mayor Koch and Governor Carey.

SALISBURY, Rhodesia, April 16-- "Enjoying yourselves, are you?" Lord Soames asked one of Robert Mugabe's black Cabinet ministers today as he followed Prince Charles down a receiving line at the Salisbury airport. "Jolly good. But I'm sure you'll enjoy it better when I'm gone, when you can do what you want to do."