What was going on when I was born?

Robert Sands, the Irish Republican Army hunger striker and Member of Parliament, died early today on his 66th day without food. He had begun his fast in an effort to force the British Government to recognize I.R.A. inmates as political prisoners rather than common criminals. Death came to Mr. Sands at 1:17 A.M. (8:17 P.M. Monday, New York time) in the hospital wing of the Maze Prison, where members of his family had been conducting an anxious vigil for several days. ''He just finally starved to death,'' said a Government official. The I.R.A. said this morning that Mr. Sands would be buried later this week ''with all the ceremony due a republican volunteer.'' Soon after 2 A.M., I.R.A. sympathizers in cars with loudspeakers and sirens began spreading the news of Mr. Sand's death through Roman Catholic neighborhoods of Belfast.

Stock prices plunged yesterday in reaction to sharply rising interest rates, including another jump in the prime rate at several major banks. The main casualties were the blue-chip and technology issues as well as Amax Inc., a producer of nonferrous metals. The Dow Jones industrial average, which was off 16.21 points in the first half-hour of trading, closed down 16.48 points, to 979.11, after a small upturn in the last hour. At 2:30 P.M., the blue-chip barometer was off 20 points at 975.59, its low for the session. Analysts attributed the late upswing to bargain hunting.

Hundreds of New Yorkers with complaints about city services - from broken street lights to uncollected garbage to heatless buildings - have found that one of the best ways to get attention from City Hall is to go straight to the Mayor at one of his local ''constituent hours.'' A team of about 30 full-time employees, known as the Community Assistance Unit, specializes in following up on complaints from the constituent hours and from the 59 community boards. The unit, which cuts red tape and finds the right person in the right agency, is a cross between an information and referral service, an ombudsman and a professional harasser of city bureaucrats. The assistance unit's primary responsibility is to the community boards and the city's vast array of community groups - block associations, tenant councils, civic associations and merchants groups. To get priority from the unit, New Yorkers can address complaints through those groups.

The discount rate was raised to a record 14 percent from 13 percent. The Federal Reserve, struggling to curb recent sharp rises in the nation's money supply, also raised the surcharge that big banks that borrow frequently at the 12 regional Reserve Banks must pay to 4 percentage points from 3. (Page A1.) The prime lending rate was increased to 19 percent from 18 percent by major banks across the country. The unusually large onepercentage-point jump reflected the sharply higher cost of funds banks are paying - rises that bankers called stunning. (D1.)

President Reagan announced today that he would nominate Reese H. Taylor Jr., a lawyer in private practice, to the Interstate Commerce Commission for a seven-year term. If Mr. Taylor is confirmed by the Senate, President Reagan intends to name him chairman of the I.C.C. Mr. Taylor, who turns 53 years old on Wednesday, was chairman of the Public Service Commission of Nevada from 1967 to 1971 and was vice chairman of the Nevada Tax Commission. A graduate of Stanford University and Cornell University Law School, he was previously associated with law firms in Las Vegas, Nev., and Los Angeles. He is now in private practice with Allison, Brunetti, MacKenzie & Taylor in Carson City, Nev.

''A group is subject to the truly magical power of words'' - Sigmund Freud, ''Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego.'' By EDWARD ROTHSTEIN SCOUTING about the halls of the Plaza Hotel last weekend during a conference on ''Sex and Language'' was like wandering through some eerie dream world. Just a floor above the marbled lobby of the most European of New York hotels, the 1,000 participants in the Fifth International Congress of the International Freudian Movement swelled out of the rooms, name tags on their chests. In each room speakers spoke, dancers danced, poets recited, some touching on the most intimate of subjects, others hardly giving it a glance. The sound of the talk could be baffling: Italian, French or English were simultaneously translated in portable headphones. Strolling through the halls, scrutinizing the activity, was the psychoanalytic maestro of it all, Arnaldo Verdiglione himself, the Italian psychoanalyst who, in 1973, founded the International Freudian Movement in a reaction to Freudian orthodoxy.

Representative Kent Hance, who comes from a family of conservative West Texas Democrats, represents the oil, cattle and grain-growing country around Lubbock that has always sent Democrats to Congress but has gone Republican in every Presidential election since 1952 except one. It is the strongly conservative, ticket-splitting politics of Mr. Hance's home district, and probably 45 others in the South and Southwest, that now feed President Reagan's hopes of forging a significant new coalition of Republicans and conservative Southern Democrats this week. The President spent nearly three hours today lobbying with two dozen Congressmen, mostly Southern Democrats, to press for support on the immediate test: the vote on the budget resolution in the House of Representatives in midweek. Broader Significance Possible If Mr. Reagan's strategy works this week, it may have broader significance. It raises the prospect of a new Republican-Southern Democratic coalition for the first time since the late 1950's, when Southern Democrats, angered at their party's national push for civil rights legislation, fell into working alliances with the Republicans.

The Envirotech Corporation, a pollution control equipment manufacturer that grew rich on the environmental fervor of the 1970's, finds itself facing a huge debt, slow sales and heavy losses. The Menlo Park, Calif., company has moved to disengage itself from operations in air pollution control products, but it says that it still has the largest line of waste water equipment in the country. Envirotech, blaming the Federal Environmental Protection Agency for a large share of its problems, has said that it is now focusing its operations on the production of equipment for mining and other industrial processes. The company asserts that the E.P.A. is taking steps to make changes in its procedures, as it was asked to do by Envirotech and several other leading companies in the industry.

International Syria resisted diplomatic pressure to withdraw antiaircraft missiles from Lebanon. Informed sources in Beirut said that Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel had warned American and Soviet intermediaries that Israel would open fire on the missiles if they were not removed by a specific deadline. (Page A1, Column 6.) Robert Sands died in a Belfast prison after a 66-day hunger strike. The Irish Republican Army prisoner and Member of Parliament had fasted in an effort to force the British Government to recognize I.R.A. inmates as political prisoners rather than common criminals. (A1:3-4.)

SEVERAL potentially fatal insect-borne diseases that are normally prevalent only in Middle Western states or foreign countries are invading the Northeastern United States, scientists have reported. Although there has been only one death and relatively few other serious consequences so far, specialists say the establishment of the diseases in the Eastern environment poses possible dangers for the future. Within the last five years, cases of La Crosse encephalitis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, babesiosis, Lyme arthritis and babesia - all insect-borne diseases caused by viruses and other microorganisms - have been reported among humans and animals in several Northeastern states, far removed from the Western states or abroad where they were first identified. One case of La Crosse encephalitis caused the death of a 13-year-old boy in Westchester County three years ago.

Percy strives to restore prestige of Foreign Relations panel A2 Giscard d'Estaing and Mitterrand are scheduled to debate today A3 Phone calls by Prince Charles from Australia reported tapped A3 Guatemalan clerics are targets of violence A5 Soviet aide says U.S. stance on East is "fraught with danger" A7 Around the World A8 Begin accuses Schmidt of arrogance and callousness A10 U.S. officials fear an Israeli-Syrian confrontation A11 Little has changed in Thailand a month after coup attempt A12 Japanese Premier leaves for talks with Reagan A13 Reagan to bid Japan assume new military burdens A14 Government/Politics Government to defend suits seeking release of documents A18 Florio plans bill to transfer Conrail commuter lines to Amtrak A20 G.O.P. chief asks Reagan to replace U.S. Attorney on L.I. B2 Wallwork seeks to ride conservative tide in Jersey B2 Panel to take up bill linking housing subsidies to rent control B4 Senate panel opens hearings on affirmative action B10 Court to hear Texas school dispute on illegal aliens B15 General Work begins on G.M. plant despite Poletown vigil A16 National Rifle Association feeling new confidence A16 Around the Nation A17 Housing Authority policeman was killed in an attempted holdup B3 Media win right to reproduce videotapes in Crimmins case B3 Victims of crimes describe how their lives have changed B6 Science Times Cameras probing within brain capture images new to science C1 Sex and language: Meeting defies meaning C1 Insect-borne viruses are moving East C1 "Black English" debates ends in Ann Arbor where it began C1 The Doctor's World C2 Science Q&A C4 Science Watch C2 Psychologists adopt a new code of ethics C3 About Education C4 Science Library C3 Industry/Labor Protest on brown-lung rule review held in Washington A17 Arts/Entertainment Babenco's film "Pixote" looks at urchins of Sao Paulo C6 Bulgarian "Attempt at Flying" staged at Yale Rep C6 This year's American Book Awards ceremony is discussed C7 Theater on film and tape in collection at the public library C7 Calvino's "If on a Winter's Night a Traveler" reviewed C11 Pomerium Musices presents "Italian Ars Nova" C11 "Broken Promise," movie about abandoned children C22 Style Looking Up to U.S. Fashion B14 Fashion Notes B14 Mother of eight is named 1981's Best B14 Obituaries Robert Sands, I.R.A. hunger striker A3 Hugh Knowlton, specialist in financing for aviation industry C20 Carter M. Braxton, a pioneer in corporate merger negotiations C20 Thaddeus Beal, lawyer and former Under Secretary of Army C20 Sports Jets' Dierking worried about his starting job B16 Smith the main event at Cooney-Norton workout B16 Assembly gets bill on boxing safety B16 Streck declared winner of flooded Houston golf B16 Vijay Amritraj beats Sadri at Forest Hills tennis B17 Rangers hope to put pressure on Islanders' Smith B17 Celtics plan key role for M.L. Carr against Rockets B17 Clyde, pitcher, seeks path back to the majors B17 Dave Anderson on the captain of the Islanders B19 Carlton wins fifth as Phils beat Giants, 6-4 B19 Unhappy Mets fans focus criticism on Mazzilli B19 Mumphrey revels in role with Yankees B19 Features/Notes Notes on People B8 Man in the News: Delbert Latta, shepherd of Reagan budget B13 Going Out Guide C8 Editorials/Letters/Op-Ed Editorials A22 The two faces of Abscam A deadly verdict on laetrile Real depreciation, real inflation Topics: a word from the sponsor Letters A22 Sydney H. Schanberg: common sense redefined A23 Tom Wicker: the great terrorist hunt A23 Dale W. Jorgenson and Peter Navarro: 10-5-3 - deeply flawed A23 Cecil B. Currey: strengthening the Army A23

The Federal Reserve Board, struggling to control the growth of the nation's money supply, today increased its bellwether interest rate on loans to commercial banks to 14 percent from 13 percent, a new high. The increase in this interest rate, called the discount rate, came late in a day of turbulence in the financial markets. On the stock market, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 16.48 points to 979.11. Brokers said that stock prices fell sharply from the opening because traders had expected interest rates to rise because of Friday's announcement of a sharp increase in the money supply. By early afternoon, major banks had raised their prime rate a full percentage point, to 19 percent. The prime, an indication of the direction of most interest rates, is described by banks as the rate charged on short-term loans to their best corporate customers, although these loans are often made at a lower rate. (Page D1.)