What was going on when I was born?

In a move intended to force more competition in the citrus-fruit industry, the Federal Trade Commission today announced an antitrust settlement against the giant Sunkist cooperative. Sunkist, which controls 75 percent of the production and marketing of Western citrus fruit, will have to sell a major citrus processing plant in Yuma, Ariz., and insure that the new owners of the plant can compete by selling them up to 55,000 tons of citrus fruit a year. In addition, Sunkist, which has its headquarters in Sherman Oaks, Calif., is placed under other restraints by the consent agreement to limit its future expansion for a period of years.

At a time when the increased flow of heroin into New York is taxing the agencies charged with curbing it, the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration has sharply criticized its Northeast regional office's efforts against the problem. According to a year-end internal evaluation that has not been made public, the regional office has failed to produce enough drug confiscations and arrests. The evaluation said that the Northeast region - which has headquarters in New York and comprises 10 states from Maine to Delaware - received a ''disproportionate'' share of money and resources, but that its productivity did not reflect it. Decrease in Arrests Is Noted According to agency sources, the evaluation noted that while nationally figures on arrests had risen in the last three years, there had been a decrease in the Northeast for arrests, and specifically in arrests for the most serious drug-related felonies. In addition, it criticized the region for spending an ''inordinately high'' amount for operating expenses.

International Soviet presence in the Middle East will be given priority over resumption of Egyptian-Israeli negotiations on Palestinian self-rule by Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr., who believes, according to American officials, that there is a major Soviet strategic threat to the region. In talks Friday with Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir of Israel, Mr. Haig was said to have made known the Administration's concerns over the strategic situation in the Middle East and its lack of enthusiasm for pushing the Palestinian autonomy talks to the center of attention. (A1:4.) Punitive action against Cuba ''was entirely possible'' if it continues its alleged shipment of arms to El Salvador's guerrillas, Edwin Meese 3d, President Reagan's chief policy adviser, said in a television interview. Mr. Meese said that it was time that Cuba and the Soviet Union ''wake up to the fact'' that the Administration ''will take the necessary steps to keep the peace any place in the world and that includes El Salvador.'' (A1:2-3.)

Just three months ago, Edward P. Croak, a top Wells Fargo auditing official, wrote in Pacific Banker & Business magazine that the bank was in an ''enviable position'' in the banking community because of its success in controlling embezzlement and fraud. But this month the bank filed a civil suit charging that a group of boxing promoters and two former bank employees had defrauded it of more than $21 million. Bankers and law enforcement officials say that full details are not yet known but that the evidence suggests a classic case of the dangers in the increasing use of computers in banking and in the proliferation of bank branches. If the charges prove true, the theft would be one of the biggest embezzlement or fraud cases in American banking history. No criminal charges have yet been filed. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Comptroller of the Currency have been called into the case, and intensive internal audits are continuing.

The jump shot, in addition to the devastating sky hook, is beginning to surface more and more in Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's game. He scored 32 points yesterday as the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Knicks, 96-93, at Madison Square, and five of his dozen baskets came on short jumpers. But Abdul-Jabbar got what proved to be the game-winning basket with one minute remaining on a fast-break layup, taking an alley-oop pass from Michael Cooper to give the Lakers a 94-93 edge. Twenty-two seconds earlier a jumper by Bill Cartwright, on a pass from Michael Ray Richardson, provided the Knicks with a 1-point advantage.

Ten days before he presented his economic program last Wednesday, President Reagan sat listening to a debate between advisers who wanted to broaden his proposed tax cut and others who feared the political ramifications of a move certain to be taken as a giveaway to the rich. After the spirited Cabinet Room session, the President reviewed the arguments in private with his top aides. Before retiring, he told them: ''Let's sleep on it.'' The next morning Mr. Reagan returned to the Oval Office and decided not to broaden the tax cut. In interviews, White House officials cited this episode as an example of an administrative style first established by Mr. Reagan when he was the Governor of California: a willingness to yield to political reality if the adjustment helped preserve his overall intent.

President Reagan's chief White House policy adviser renewed warnings to Cuba today that the United States ''does not rule out anything'' in its efforts to halt arms deliveries to left-wing guerrillas in El Salvador. Edwin Meese 3d, interviewed on television, said it was time that Cuba and the Soviet Union ''wake up to the fact'' that the Reagan Administration ''will take the necessary steps to keep the peace any place in the world, and that includes El Salvador.'' Asked if such steps could include a naval blockade of Cuba, which the United States has identified as the coordinator of Soviet-bloc arms shipments to El Salvador, Mr. Meese replied: ''The President has said many times he would like potential or real adversaries to go to bed every night wondering what we will do the next day. I don't think we would rule out anything.''

Saying that one of every 24 subway cars in New York City's fleet is sidelined indefinitely because of out-of-stock parts, the president of the Transit Authority is seeking broad additional powers to award millions of dollars in contracts not only for replacement parts but also for many other goods and services. In many instances, such awards would be made without competitive bidding and without the prior approval of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's board. A proposal to increase the spending powers of the authority president, John D. Simpson, has the support of Richard Ravitch, the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and it is expected to be acted on by the M.T.A board at a meeting tomorrow. Mr. Simpson said in an interview that the new powers would speed the purchases needed to restore subway and bus service to an acceptable level.

The 10 largest savings banks in New York City reported heavy operating losses in the fourth quarter of 1980 as a result of the high level of interest rates, according to reports filed with the New York State Banking Department. The losses ranged from $14.2 million for the Bowery Savings Bank, the largest, with assets of $5.4 billion, to $400,000 for the Metropolitan Savings Bank, the smallest of the 10, with assets of $2.3 billion. The fundamental problem the banks face is that they have had to pay more for their deposits and other funds than they have been receiving on their assets, mainly mortgages and bonds. These assets were acquired years ago, when interest rates were substantially lower than they are today.

A grand old steam locomotive, captured on canvas, dominates one wall of the office of Richard Dicker, the 66-year-old chairman of the Penn Central Corporation. It is a haunting reminder of a troubled corporate past for those trying to turn the biggest American business failure into a success story. If the past commands one wall, the future is displayed on another in the form of photographs of offshore oil drilling rigs owned by a Penn Central subsidiary. Indeed, the company takes pains to separate itself from its railroad origins. Corporate releases stress that it is now a conglomerate of real estate, oil and gas properties and amusement parks.

Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. is not inclined to press for an early resumption of Egyptian-Israeli negotiations on Palestinian self-rule but rather to concentrate American efforts on countering what he regards as a major Soviet strategic threat to the Middle East, senior American officials said today. According to these officials, Mr. Haig, in being consistent with his global view, wants to give priority to dealing with the overriding problem of what is said to be Soviet expansionism around the world. In his analysis, the Middle East is only part of the global problem facing the United States and its partners. Mr. Haig is said to want to strengthen political and military ties with American friends such as Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia and to encourage Europeans to focus more concern on the strategic problems in the region.

President Reagan is estimated to have a net worth of $4 million, based upon a financial disclosure report filed with a Government agency last week, plus other information on his finances. He has disclosed his net worth only once, in the 1976 contest for the Republican Presidential nomination, when Mr. Reagan said he was worth $1,455,571. At the time there were suggestions that the net worth statement placed values on some of his real estate that were too low. For example, Mr. Reagan indicated then that the value of his Pacific Palisades house in suburban Los Angeles was slightly more than $200,000. Now he has put the home on the market for $1.9 million, a substantial increase in value, even allowing for inflation.