What was going on when I was born?

A fire of suspicious origin swept the census office in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn early yesterday, destroying tens of thousands of documents. Officials at the Census Bureau headquarters in Maryland said the entire area of nearly a quarter million residents would have to be recounted.

Beverly Sills's final day as an operatic singer had been a varied, multisplendored and extravagant love feast attended by thousands. But just a little after midnight, she found herself alone on the stage of the New York State ...

SIBLING relationships, traditionally studied only among children and ado lescents, are potent forces in adulthood, too, as well as a resource with broad social importance for elderly Americans, recent studies show.

Genesco Inc., which has been steadily reducing its retailing operations, has announced that it plans to divest itself of its S.H. Kress variety store division, its 28 Roos-Atkins apparel stores in California and its Post drug stores in Houston.

UNTIL two years ago, Daniel Newman, chairman of the Education Committee of the State Assembly, was one of the most powerful figures in New Jersey education.

An apparent tightening of Federal Reserve monetary policy resulted in sharply higher short-term interest rates yesterday. This was illustrated by new six-month Treasury bills, which were auctioned at an average of 12.28 percent, up from 11.41 percent a week earlier.

GDANSK, Poland, Oct. 27--The independent trade union organization voted today to tell Prime Minister Jozef Pinkowski to come to the Lenin shipyard here for negotiations or face the possibility of a strike. Mr. Pinkowski responded by asking the union leaders to meet him in Warsaw instead.

HAVANA, Oct. 27--Thirty Americans were released from prisons in Cuba today and flown to Miami in an airliner chartered by the United States Justice Department. Three others who were released by the Cuban Government chose to remain here.

WHITE PLAINS, Oct. 27--County Executive Alfred B. DelBello accused the Consolidated Edison Company today of having ignored an agreement to report "any unusual occurrence" at the Indian Point 2 nuclear plant when it waited five days to disclose a 100,000-gallon water leak to Westchester County officials.

The General Motors Corporation reported yesterday that it lost a record $567 million in the third quarter, which ended Sept. 30. It was the largest quarterly loss ever for a United States corporation.

DETROIT, Oct. 27 (UPI)--The United Automobile Workers union said today that it would go directly to the public with a plea to buy American cars--the first sales advertising "pitch" in its history.