What was going on when I was born?

WHITE PLAINS, Nov. 25--Dr. Herman Tarnower's apparently fading affection for Jean S. Harris, who is accused of his murder, prompted her two years ago to threaten the doctor and Lynne Tryforos, who she felt was taking her place, according to testimony today in Westchester County Court by Suzanne Van der Vreken, the doctor's house manager for 16 years.

For those who think they might like to own a personal computer but are unwilling to go through the trials of learning to program one, off-the-shelf, or "canned," software is available to make a system function.

MOUNT VERNON, N.Y., Nov. 25-- James T. Dunston, an 11-year-veteran of the New York City Housing Authority police force, purchased a two-story house on Summit Avenue here last Thursday morning, the day of his wife's birthday. That afternoon, he was shot and killed while responding to a robbery in progress at an apartment in an East Harlem housing project.

NEW ORLEANS, Nov. 25--Sugar Ray Leonard scored a technical knockout of Roberto Duran tonight and regained the World Boxing Council's welterweight title.

The New York State Court of Appeals yesterday ordered the removal of a Civil Court judge in Brooklyn for having used his title outside the courtroom in trying to help an animal shelter.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 23--The Justice Department today published a new guide intended to show the business world that "much joint research may be engaged in without violating the antitrust laws."

STAMFORD, Conn.--Electric utility companies are ordering new fossilfired power plants at a rate of only 8,000 megawatts a year, about one-third of the manufacturing industry's capacity, and the market for new nuclear units is nonexistent. Yet that bleak news has not dampened spirits at Combustion Engineering Inc., which ranks first and third, respectively, in supplying such equipment.

DETROIT, Nov. 25--The nation's Big Three auto makers reported today that their sales dropped 8.9 percent in mid-November from the comparable period last year.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 25 (AP)--New orders for durable goods rose 1.3 percent last month, a far smaller increase than in September, as military spending fell off considerably, the Government said today.

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 25--The 20th Century-Fox Film Corporation announced today that it was studying the feasibility of becoming a privately held corporation by purchasing back its stock from its shareholders.

PARIS IT is said in the wine trade that 100 days are needed to grow the grapes and 10 days to make the vintage--the crucial 10 days of sunshine at the end of the harvest that enable the grapes to ripen sufficiently to make good wine.

An important debate on the future course of Government policy on the arts is in progress in the inner councils of President-elect Ronald Reagan's advisers on cultural affairs. The debate is concentrated on the programs and policies of the National Endowment for the Arts and...