What was going on when I was born?

Behind Ecuador-Peru war, long- smoldering resentment A2 Spain's ruling party ends parley still divided A3 Canadian premiers to will petition Britain on constitution issue A4 Around the World A5 Iran and Iraq said to agree to visits by Islamic leaders A7 Zimbabwe invites U.S. to foreign aid donors conference A8 Reagan is asked to give main policy role to State Department A9 Government/Politics Hinson of Mississippi to resign after arrest for attempt A14 Reasons for travel often baffle U.S. agencies A16 G.A.O. predicts electronic mail will cut Postal Service role A19 Koch moves town meeting after heckling B2 Assembly passes bills on nuclear safeguards B6 Curb on publication of research on code stirs controversy B11 General Around the Nation A14 San Diego leads nation in use of solar energy A14 Houston officials act to curtail outbreak of meningitis A14 Ex-Wells Fargo aide reported aid- ing F.B.I. inquiry A24 L.I.R.R. tied up by breakdowns B2 The Region B4 The City B8 Psychiatrists agree an accused killer is not responsible B8 Women lawyers express frustra- tion at A.B.A. parley B9 Industry/Labor Proposed miners' pact offers s a form of cost-of-living pay A14 Science Times State psychiatric hospitals forced to close or change C1 Worldwide research plumbs the essence of gravity C1 Sweeping changes in Govern- ment's science policies C1 Education: Protestant schools open at rate of three a day C1 Central Park's pinetum flourishes as an outdoor lab C3 Science Q&A C3 About Education C4 Arts/Entertainment A whimsical Balanching outlines Tchkaivsky ballet festivial C7 Joey Bishop enjoys taxing role in "Sugar Babies" C7 Ronald Thomas in cello recital C7 Oscar Shumsky, violinist, plays with Jupiter Symphony C7 Paramount pays $1 million to res- cue Coppola enterprise C7 Robert Young's "Alambrista!" opens at Public Theater C8 Hard times may force D'Oyly Carte to close C11 Sam Anson's account of how Roll- ing Stone grew is reviewed C11 Manhattan Punch Line stages a new Otis Bigelow comedy C22 Eglevsky Ballet at Hofstra C22 PBS's "Nova" studies eruptions of Mount St. Helens C22 "The Choice," about abortion, on CBS-TV tonight C22 Rostropovich conducts Rachma- ninoff's Vespers C24 Style Notes on Fashion C12 Culottes step smartly for spring C12 Mrs. Reagan's special cause C12 Obituaries Bill Haley, early rock-and-roll band leader B19 Mahomed Ali Currim Chagla, for- mer Foreign Minister of India B19 John H. Mathis, retired executive of cement concern B19 G.S.DeVine, ex-president of C.&O. and B.&O. railroads B19 Jack Z. Anderson, former Repre- sentative from California B19 Sports Fordham routs Army, 75-57 B13 Syracuse beats Georgetown on a hook shot in final seconds, 66-64 B13 Free agency is subject at N.H.L. all-star game talks B13 N.B.A. teams discuss trades as deadline nears B14 Mix-up creates uncertainty about Millrose 5,000 records B15 Co-promoter says Smith has told him Garden card will go on B15 Briard advances to final at West- minster show B15 Garden show has 2,910 dog stories, the non-shaggy kind B15 Dave Anderson on Tom Seaver at his winter chores B16 Features/Notes Issue and Debate: Should regula- tions on lands ease? A21 Going Out Guide C11 Notes on People C13 News Analysis John Vinocur on West German So- cial Democrats' problems A3 Frank Lynn on government aides and political campaigns B8 Linda Greenhouse on Chief Jus- tice Burger's plea on crime B9 Editorials/Letters/Op-Ed Editorials A22 Decontrol bus travel Pakistan's Afghan feeler Learning the Rosedale lesson Topics: no deluge Letters A23 Tom Wicker: Chief Justice Burg- er's call to arms A23 Donald J. Newman: no, don't abolish parole A23 Zhores Medvedev: effects of the Soviet grain embargo A23 F. Steven Larrabee: U.S. strategy is the key to lifting the embargo A23

''We want to send a message to people coming to New Jersey that carrying guns won't be tolerated and that New Jersey jails will have a welcome mat out for criminals who use guns.'' - Assemblyman Martin A. Herman. (A1:1.)

Shirley Williams, the former Education Secretary, completed her break with the Labor Party today, a long-awaited move that signaled the creation of a new party in British politics. Mrs. Williams, a leader of the the new faction in the ideological center between Labor and the Conservatives, formally resigned from the Labor Party's 29-member National Executive Committee, saying that ''the party I loved and worked for over so many years no longer exists.'' Two weeks ago, Mrs. Williams and three other former Cabinet ministers, after long and anguished deliberations, announced the formation of what they called ''The Council for Social Democracy'' to work toward the political ideals that they said Labor had abandoned in its recent drift to the left. Reconciliation Attempt Fails Since then, Michael Foot, the Labor Party leader, has been trying hard to persuade them to stay in the party and work out their differences with it from within. But the announcement today by Mrs. Williams, the only committee member among the four, was a sign that he had failed in that attempt.

The Reagan Administration is fashioning a military budget that calls for an increase of $32 billion over President Carter's proposed budgets for this year and the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, according to officials at the Pentagon and in military-related industry. The Reagan budget reportedly will emphasize shipbuilding for the Navy, tactical aircraft and a new bomber for the Air Force, more civilian employees for the Army, despite the current freeze in other Federal hiring, and pay increases for members of the armed forces. On Feb. 18 President Reagan is expected to propose cuts of $40 billion to $50 billion in all other Federal spending for the fiscal year 1982. Only military spending will be increased, according to current plans, and the new military budget is expected to face strong opposition when it is presented to Congress later in the month.

WHAT is gravity? Of the basic forces it is the least understood. Does it, as Einstein proposed, take the form of waves, ranging from the vanishingly small to miles in length, the way light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation do? No one knows for sure. But now the effort to find out - an effort that has been growing for years - has taken on heroic proportions as scientists around the world hone existing instruments and devise new ones for a variety of tests. Physicists are virtually unanimous in their belief that, despite its seeming to be purely an attracting force, gravity has properties in common with the other readily observable force, electromagnetism. The prediction from Einstein's general theory of relativity that gravity, particularly when strong, slows time and bends space has been amply demonstrated. Watches run slightly faster on the top story of a building than at street level because, being farther from the center of the earth, they are in a weaker gravitational field. The strong gravity of the sun bends space sufficiently for stars to appear out of place when viewed along paths that skirt the sun during an eclipse.

After a year on the job, the welder at IngersollRand's upstate New York compressor assembly plant shows no signs of getting bored. Or hungry. Or tired. The welder is a robot. Relentlessly, its large metal-sheathed arm rises out of a stocky, floor-anchored torso and squirms and twists according to the dictates of a nearby computer, searching for the 31 locations it will weld in 11 minutes. When it has finished the job, it pivots and begins work on a second unit while Dale Van Etten, a co-worker, replaces the first.

Lena Simeone walks alone at night, without fear, in an area of New York City that has become a national symbol of urban decay, hopelessness and even lawlessness. The neighborhood is Belmont, a small island of safety in the South Bronx. In the few secure blocks where Mrs. Simeone has lived for more than 50 years, there is life in the streets after dark and no one worries about the sudden stranger with a gun or a knife. Young people play in the public park in the evenings, old people walk the streets alone and shopkeepers scratch their heads when asked how often they have been robbed. There are no bars or steel grates on shop windows in Belmont, and the police say that if a thief tried to snatch a purse, residents would chase and hold him until they arrived.

President Reagan told a group of county executives and state legislators today that his proposed cuts in assistance to local governments would be softened by easing restrictions and requirements governing the use of Federal aid. With nine days to go before announcing his program of tax cuts and budget reductions, Mr. Reagan also stepped up consultations with his advisers so that final decisions on the package could be made before the beginning of next week. At lunchtime, Mr. Reagan heard Treasury Secretary Donald T. Regan outline tax-cutting plans, including a 10 percent annual reduction in personal income taxes for the next three years. Timing and Impact Discussed The discussion centered on the timing of the tax-cutting proposals and on projections of their impact on such things as Federal revenues, according to a Reagan aide. Joining the discussion were David A. Stockman, director of the Office of Management and Budget, and other aides.

The Morgan Guaranty Trust Company, the nation's fifth-largest bank, lowered its prime lending rate yesterday to 19 percent, the lowest level among the nation's largest banks. Other major banks continued to keep the rate, the basis for interest charges to their most creditworthy corporate customers, at 19 1/2 percent, a level that spread throughout the industry a week ago. However, predictions that major banks would follow Morgan's lead in reducing the prime rate are widespread, and some smaller, regional banks are already quoting rates below 19 percent.

The U.S. is going to the international market to buy oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The Energy Department said it would seek 20,000 barrels a day. The move, which goes against Saudi Arabia's wishes, would be the first direct foreign purchases for the controversial reserve in two years. (Page D1.) Saudi Arabia raised the price of the small volumes of oil it is providing to countries affected by supply cutoffs caused by the IranIraq war, oil industry sources said. The price rose $4 a barrel, to $36, for the 600,000 barrels daily provided under temporary contracts. But the move raised the possibility that the Saudis would increase the $32 price it charges for the rest of its oil. (D12.)

The Secretary of Transportation said yesterday that he supported the controversial Westway highway project and that its construction was ''only a question of timing and funding.'' The statement by the Secretary, Drew Lewis, was the first endorsement by a Federal official of the proposed $1.7 billion Manhattan highway project since the Reagan Administration took office last month. During the Presidential campaign, Mr. Reagan had said that he supported the project, but since then Administration officials have been saying that the project was under study. The Lewis position was made public by Senator Alfonse M. D'Amato and later confirmed by the Secretary's office. A spokesman for Mr. Lewis said: ''He is supportive of Westway, if it is defined as part of the Interstate System. It is only a question of timing and funding.''

Amid military pomp and solemnity, former Governor Ella T. Grasso was buried today in her native Windsor Locks, Conn., four days after she died of cancer at the age of 61. More than 15,000 mourners paid their last respects to Mrs. Grasso as her body lay in state in the Capitol for 24 hours ending at 11 A.M. today. Hundreds more gathered in the blustery cold to glimpse her coffin as it was taken to St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Cathedral for the funeral and then to Windsor Locks for burial, in the first state funeral in Connecticut in 70 years. The Governors of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island joined the mourners crowded into St. Joseph's, as did former Governor John Lodge of Connecticut, representing President Reagan, and Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. and Undersecretary of State James L. Buckley, both Connecticut residents before their appointments.