What was going on when I was born?

TRENTON NINE months after explosions ripped through drums of hazardous waste at the Chemical Control Corporation in Elizabeth and set them ablaze, New Jersey remains so heavily burdened with dump sites that officials do not know in what area a fire might erupt next.

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 13--The families of the American hostages in Iran met here this weekend, but, because there was little news on the progress of negotiations, it was mostly an occasion to bolster themselves for another Christmas with a loved one still in captivity.

Transit officials last night suspended indefinitely the operation of their entire fleet of 637 new Grumman Flxible buses, following a weekend inspection. They said almost 100 of the buses were found to have developed conditions that made safe travel doubtful.

SAN SALVADOR, Dec. 13--After a week of intense negotiations between the armed forces and the Christian Democrats, the country's major political party, Jose Napoleon Duarte has been named the first civilian President of the country...

NEWARK DORA W. sits in the Adolescent Clinic at College Hospital here, bluejeans rolled up smartly over her cowboy boots and a plaid shirt stretched over her bulging belly.

BRUSSELS--The specter of Soviet occupation of Poland is the focal point of a seemingly unending series of grave international crises. Everything is in place for an overwhelming move. The chief of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's military committee said it could happen "within a matter of hours," so swiftly that Western intelligence might not know definitely until "almost after the fact."

Leaders of a homeowners association at a condominium in Connecticut discover they need $250,000 in a hurry for critical roof repairs. Nobody has considered building reserves and there is concern the residents cannot afford a special assessment. Even worse, the leaders learn that no ...

Beter Shaffer, who wrote "Equus," a play about horses, has now written "Amadeus," a play about a pair of composers. One of them is Antonio Salieri. Antonio who? The other is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and he needs no de

"I'm half inclined to think we're all ghosts," says a character in one of Henrik Ibsen's plays. "It's not only what we've inherited from our fathers and mothers that exists again in us, but

TRENTON ANYONE planning to drive to At lantic City in the near future would be well advised to make sure that his car's lights are in working order and that the beast isn't belching smoke or doing anything else that might attract the attention of a state trooper.

THE Long Island Lighting Company, which in the past has successfully fought contentions that it would be cheaper for customers if the Shoreham nuclear plant were either delayed or converted ...

IN a move that was expected to make waves in boating circles, the Social Register has blackballed the Larchmont Yacht Club, that venerable Westchester institution, and its members have risen virtually as one to ask, not why but who cares?