What was going on when I was born?

Senate Republican leaders planned a legislative strategy today that they hoped would result in Senate approval of a ''substantial'' portion of President Reagan's proposed budget cuts in four weeks. Principally, this legislation would change the law governing ''entitlement'' programs, such as food stamps and Medicaid, under which individuals are entitled to receive Federal funds. Eligibility would be restricted, benefits reduced and ceilings placed on spending for the various programs, under the President's proposal. Baker Opposes Delay ''It is my intention to move these budget cuts in less than a month,'' Senator Howard H. Baker Jr. of Tennessee, the Republican leader, said at a news conference. ''Every day that this is delayed makes it more difficult to pass.'' President Reagan's budget of $695.5 billion involves cuts of $41.4 billion in 83 major programs.

THERE are exhibitions that give us pleasure, and there are exhibitions that offer us instruction, but there are few exhibitions that combine these functions with quite the same degree of success as that achieved by the show called ''Turner and the Sublime,'' which has now come to the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven. Its principal focus is on rarely seen watercolors by the greatest of the British landscape painters, J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851). Of the 123 watercolors, prints and drawings contained in the exhibition, some 60 items are drawn from the vast Turner Bequest housed in the British Museum in London. Among them are some of the most remarkable watercolors ever committed to paper. This in itself makes it a show of unusual interest. But if ''Turner and the Sublime'' is pleasurable, first of all, for the artistic rarities it brings us, it has another importance as well. For it places Turner firmly and unequivocally in the cultural context of his time, and by doing so, it significantly alters our understanding of his art by recalling us to the ideas that governed it.

A shoplifting suspect can be found guilty of larceny even without having left a store with stolen goods, New York State's highest court ruled today. The unanimous opinion by the state's Court of Appeals was intended to update the interpretation of the state's larceny law to deal with new types of theft occurring in self-service retail stores. It was the court's first effort to define at what point a customer's handling, examination and carrying of merchandise around a store becomes a criminal act. Juries have been making their own interpretations on a case-by-case basis.

The hopes and concerns that an estimated 12 million PolishAmericans share with the nearly 40 million Poles in Poland during the current trade-union unrest are being reinforced by a vigorous and growing movement and an exchange of information between the two peoples. ''There's a coming and going, an open door now between Poland and the West like there never was before,'' said an editor of a leading Polish-American newspaper published in New York City. An indication of this, he added, is the current three-week visit to the United States of Zbigniew Gryszkiewicz, legal counsel to Poland's independent union, Solidarity. Community leaders in the United States say the communications range from inquiries about a family's well-being to discussions among authoritative sources in both countries on the evolving situation in Poland and what the United States should - or should not - do about it.

Corporate America yesterday welcomed President Reagan's economic program - particularly his proposals to encourage investment - as a long-needed change in Government policy. Many of the nation's top business executives said that they expected the President's economic plans, if approved by Congress, to lead to increased investment in new plant and equipment. They also believe that his proposed tax revisions will put the consumer in a better buying mood. But as the businessmen passed from near-euphoria after the President's address Wednesday night to a more analytical mood, many were unable to cite the definite effects the proposals might have on their companies.

STRIKES IN POLAND NEAR END: Prime Minister Wojciech Jaruzelski greeting a worker at a pharmaceutical factory near Warsaw. Only one strike was reported continuing in the country yesterday, and a spokesman for Solidarity, the independent labor movement, said that the strike, by farmers, was expected to be settled shortly.

Fearful Nicaragua sets out to build 200,000-strong militia A2 Iranian says documents tying 4 Britons to spying were forged A3 Visitors to Iran-Iraq front find war is stalemated A3 Text of State Department docu- ment on Salvadoran guerrillas A4 Survey smuggled to Israel finds Soviet Jews retain identity A7 Around the World A8 Reagan urged to hold up sale of jet gear to Saudis A9 Government/Politics Labor leaders call economic plan unfair A10 U.S. aid to states to buy park land slashed in budget A10 Amtrak budget requests exceeds proposal by Reagan A10 Area Congressmen urge rejection of proposed transit aid cuts A17 Moynihan sees in Reagan budget a threat to New York City A17 Proposed cuts in arts and humani- ties endowments criticized A17 O'Neill says effects of Reagan budget cuts to be devastating A17 Two vie for Democratic National Committee chairmanship A21 Carey revises medicaid takeover plan B3 General Around the Nation A18 Investigation continued on Vir- ginia bus crash that killed 10 A18 Sinatra regains Nevada gaming li- cense A18 Texas paper gets court permit to publish list of bordello clients A20 New office building planned south of World Trade Center B3 3 accused of bilking woman with promise of supernatural cure B3 A new proposal for the Times Square area announced B3 Weekend Weekender Guide C1 Guide to Hamptons in the win- ter C1 Theater: Broadway C2 Critic's Notebook C3 "Still Life" at American Place Theater C3 Where to scout the youngest tal- ent C8 Screen: At the Movies C6 New Face: Blair Brown of "Al- tered States" C8 Music: Four non-Western con- certs on weekend schedule C10 Debussy retrospective tomor- row C16 New York bands a big hit in London C17 Horace Silver at Fat Tuesday's C17 Art: Rare Turners shown at Yale C1 David Hockney set designs for Met Opera C1 Richard Serra drawings at Blum-Helman Gallery C20 "The Clay Figure," sculpture, at craft museum C21 Auctions C23 Books: Publishing C25 "John von Neumann and Nor- bert Weiner" by Steve Heims C25 Restaurants C18 Industry/Labor 2 leaders of dock union balk at Senate panel's questions A21 Education/Welfare Graduates of a Harlem junior high return, 25 years later B3 Style The Evening Hours B4 The life of a Japanese journalist in New York B4 Sports Righetti battling not to be Yan- kees' odd man out B6 Canadiens win, 5-2, and end Sabres unbeaten streak at 12 B6 Rangers routed by Red Wings, 7-3 B7 Baseball owners exercise option on player compensation B7 Two pro teams may desert Boston in near future B7 Wayne Gretzky is a one-man show for Oilers B7 An embarrassed McEnroe apolo- gizes after rout by Borg B7 Iowa beats Indiana and takes over lead in Big Ten basketball B8 Red Smith on the shot heard round the big leagues B9 News Analysis Leonard Silk discusses the Presi- dent's economic program A1 Henry Scott Stokes examines U.S.-Japan relations A6 Editorials/Letters/Op-Ed Editorials A26 The truly needy A weighty sermon Tales of fighting crime Robert M. Curvin: free heroin Letters A26 Flora Lewis: the mitochondria principle A27 Tom Wicker: Reagan shoves in his stack A27 David Gold and Robert De Grasse Jr: recovery vs. defense A27 Thomas Bender: preserving our city's history A27

Those who think conventionally might mistake her for a glamorous European sophisticate, which she is, or the financial adviser of a fashion business, which she is. But few would guess that Linda Beltramini, a worldly citizen of Brazil, Britain and Switzerland, is also one of the toughest and sharpest of a new breed of financiers in the city: the secretive cadre that helps wealthy foreigners find ways of investing their money in the United States. While her name is not well known outside a tight circle of investment advisers and foreign investors, she was identified recently as the architect of the $8 million sale of Henri Bendel to a Swiss group and the accompanying lease of Bendel's 57th Street store to other Swiss investors. From a glance at her chauffeured Mercedes, her Fendi furs and her East Side town house, it is not readily apparent that the 34-yearold Mrs. Beltramini has run not one, but two, multimillion-dollar businesses.

John Behan, a Long Island athlete who lost both legs in the Vietnam war, is to be nominated tomorrow to head the Veterans Administration, a White House official said today. Mr. Behan, who serves as a Republican member of the New York State Assembly from Montauk, is one of four persons scheduled to be nominated tomorrow to high-level posts in the Reagan Administration. Three Diverse Agencies The others to be appointed are: John S. R. Shad, vice chairman of E. F. Hutton & Co., to become chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Ann McGill Gorshutz, a former member of the Colorado State Legislature, to become administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. M. Michael Cardenas, a certified public accountant in California, to head the Small Business Administration. All of the appointments are subject to confirmation by the Senate.

An article in Business Day on Tues- day included outdated information on a Federal investigation of tire grading. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration notified the General Tire and Rubber Company and the Armstrong Rubber Company on Fri- day that it had accepted their tire rat- ings and had dropped its investigation.

International Harvester today reported a net loss of $96.4 million for the first quarter of its 1981 fiscal year, which ended on Jan. 31, continuing a string of quarterly losses that totaled $397 million in the 1980 fiscal year. Archie J. McCardell, chairman of the truck, construction and agricultural equipment manufacturing company, predicted that a sustained period of high interest rates would result in a loss for the second quarter also. He estimated that the deficit for the entire year could reach $50 million to $100 million despite an expected recovery in the second half of the year.

DAVID HOCKNEY, at the age of 43, is a great many people's favorite English painter. With his paintings, his drawings, his prints and his stage designs (for Stravinsky's ''Rake's Progress'' and Mozart's ''Magic Flute,'' both at the Glyndebourne Opera in England), he has endeared himself to all but a skeptical minority. But if ever there was an assignment to make an artist jump ship, it is the one that faced David Hockney when he agreed to design both sets and costumes for the three 20th-century French works that are being offered this evening at the Metropolitan Opera House under the embracing title ''Parade.'' The works in question are ''Parade,'' a ballet with music by Erik Satie; ''Les Mamelles de Tiresias,'' an opera with libretto by Guillaume Apollinaire and music by Francis Poulenc, and ''L'Enfant et les Sortileges,'' an opera with libretto by Colette and music by Maurice Ravel. Every one of them is just about as difficult as it could be for the designer. Moreover, the Ravel and the Poulenc call for a house the size of the Opera Comique in Paris, where every wink can be seen and every last consonant can be heard. The Metropolitan is not such a house.