What was going on when I was born?

Four years ago, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith introduced an innovative new product that combined its traditional brokerage margin account with checkwriting and Visa card privileges tied to a money market mutual fund. Most of its customers though were more mystified than dazzled by the ingenuity of the product, and it was greeted with widespread indifference. The novelty of money funds - which pool the money of investors and place it in various liquid assets - has long since worn off and the huge success of Merrill Lynch's marketing gamble, called a Cash Management Account, has propelled the firm into the leading edge of the revolution in financial services that is transforming Wall Street. A Remarkable Pace The Cash Management Account program is multiplying at a remarkable pace - almost 110,000 of its 300,000 accounts have been added so far this year alone. Investment in the C.M.A. money trust - the cornerstone of the program from which funds are invested into the money market - is more than $6 billion - double the amount in reserve a year ago.

The clear plastic mats lead out of the locker room, past the blue and silver banner that says Cowboys, and into a smaller meeting room where the blackboard is clean. In this room, there is no need for X's and O's. The Dallas Cowboys who voluntarily enter the room climb into the team's new sensory deprivation tank, a white fiberglass box that is eight feet long, four feet wide and four feet high. One by one, they float on their backs in water for an hour at a time in a peaceful world where their minds can be cleared of mistakes and pressures, and then refilled with information that can help win football games. ''The think tank,'' said D.D. Lewis, the linebacker. The Dallas organization, given credit for bringing football into the computer age during the 1960's, is trying something new for the 80's. The Cowboys will experiment with a new teaching method that combines two ideas -closed-circuit television and a controlled environment. Some research has shown that the use of videotape on television screens can increase learning. And the controlled environment - a dark, enclosed, weightless, timeless space aided by a heavy salt solution warmed to body temperature - can isolate the player from the world, eliminate distractions and simplify learning.

Major corporations showed mixed earnings results in the most recent quarter, according to a New York Times compilation of sales and earnings of 306 companies. The industry-by-industry roundup shows that about 60 percent of the companies reported earnings increases or converted a loss into a profit. About 40 percent showed declines or reported a loss. The quarterly compilation is published today on page D6.

Representatives of the world's major free news organizations pledged today to fight efforts in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to set up a so-called New World Information Order that would restrict press freedom. For the first time Western and other free newspapers and broadcasting networks took a united stand against the campaign by Soviet bloc and third world countries to give Unesco the authority to regulate the flow of news and information around the world. In a joint declaration, some 60 leaders of print and broadcasting organizations from 20 countries called press freedom ''a basic human right'' and said they were resolved to resist ''any encroachment'' on it. Unesco Urged to Drop Proposal They urged Unesco ''to abandon attempts to regulate news content and formulate rules for press conduct,'' saying this violated its own charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Helsinki Declaration on Human Rights and was inconsistent with the United Nations Charter.

The 145-acre site of the Pepsico world headquarters here is by universal consent a gorgeous piece of real estate. Formerly owned by the Blind Brook Polo Club, the property was bought by Pepsico in 1965. Under the direction of Donald M. Kendall, chairman of the board and chief executive officer, the tract soon came to include a headquarters building designed by the late Edward Durrell Stone, an elaborate and irresistibly successful adventure in landscape gardening by Edward Durrell Stone Jr. and a collection of outdoor sculpture chosen and installed by Mr. Kendall. Seen as a public park, to which access is allowed during daylight hours seven days a week, the Pepsico headquarters is a delight. The shaven lawns stretch out to infinity, with mallard and Canada geese to crop them. The large man-made lake is graced by a single plume of water, thrown high in the air, that is every bit as spectacular as its counterpart on Lake Geneva in Switzerland.

Pope John Paul II left his bed today for the first time since he was wounded in an assassination attempt on Wednesday, and the hospital's chief physician said it was possible that the Pontiff would be able to leave the hospital in about a month. Earlier, the Pope recorded a message that was broadcast to pilgrims and tourists in St. Peter's Square. In a strong and clear voice, he said that he had forgiven his assailant and that he regarded his own sufferings as an offering to the Roman Catholic Church and the world. It was the first time that the Pope's voice had been heard in public since the shooting in St. Peter's Square. The short address was recorded by Vatican Radio technicians in the Pope's room in the intensive care unit of Gemelli Hospital.

President Reagan's proposal to reduce the Social Security benefits paid to workers who retire after the end of this year would have the secondary effect of requiring many companies, under contractual arrangements, to spend more money than they had anticipated on private pensions. That would be the case, according to pension authorities, because most pension plans base the size of the private allotment their retired employees receive on the amount the employees get from Social Security. The plans are drawn in such a way, the authorities said, that, if Social Security benefits are reduced, the companies would have to make up at least part of the difference with private funds. A spokesman for the Social Security Administration acknowledged that some companies would have to pay more for pensions if the Reagan plan was enacted, but the spokesman noted that Administration officials had held out the possibility of modest tax reductions to employers as well as employees if the plan was adopted in full.

Another bomb - the third within 20 hours - was discovered early yesterday at the Pan American World Airways Terminal at Kennedy International Airport, and investigators were hunting a Puerto Rican terrorist group thought to be responsible for planting all three devices. The new device was removed without being detonated. But the terminal had to be evacuated for five hours and was not reopened until 10:03 A.M. Two flights to Miami and one to San Francisco involving about 500 passengers were delayed. The first of the explosive devices found over the weekend exploded, killing a terminal worker. The explosion, on Saturday, came shortly after a telephone call warning that bombs had been placed in the name of the Puerto Rican Armed Resistance, presumed to be a group demanding Puerto Rico's independence.

Flip Wilson. Roberto Duran. Marilyn Chambers. Anita Bryant. And now Billie Jean King. All these celebrities have found themselves thrust into controversy that subsequently earned them a frown of disapproval from the marketing world in which they had become involved. Advertisers set great store by pitchmen who are recognizable, credible and squeaky clean - all the better to move that soda pop, cold cream and starch. When a celebrity's life becomes blemished, marketers are not slow to disassociate themselves. ''The ad business is the straightest business there is,'' remarks Lloyd Kolmer, who lines up celebrities for ad agencies. ''It doesn't want any shock waves going through it that would hurt a client's image. The company image is the key.''

Chancellor Helmut Schmidt raised the possibility today of his resignation or the breakup of the Government if groups in his Social Democratic Party do not stop undermining NATO's plan for modernizing its middle-range nuclear missiles in Western Europe. In a speech of almost brutal directness to members of the party, Mr. Schmidt said that he ''could not shoulder the responsibility for the Government much longer'' if segments in the party continued to seek to reverse its support for the alliance program. Approved in December 1979, the plan calls for the stationing of 572 American cruise and Pershing missiles in European member-countries of the alliance and simultaneous discussions between the United States and Soviet Union on reducing the number of such weapons on both sides. Meeting With Reagan This Week Mr. Schmidt, who will begin talks with President Reagan in Washington on Wednesday, said that if the internal party strife did not stop, the junior partner in the coalition, the Free Democratic Party, might switch sides and join the opposition Christian Democrats.

For more than a decade the British Government and Britain's largest main-frame computer manufacturer, ICL Ltd., have been conducting an on-again, off-again relationship. The latest move came a few days ago when the Government stepped in to thwart a possible marriage between ICL and an American-based computer manufacturer, the Sperry Corporation. Other foreign computer makers, including the Control Data Corporation, had also been mentioned in recent weeks as possible corporate partners for the financially troubled ICL. The Government apparently decided that it was important to keep ICL British-owned. The Government, exerting the influence it gained in March by guaranteeing $420 million in loans to the computer manufacturer, was able to replace the company's top management last week with a new team of its own choosing. Christopher Laidlaw, deputy chairman of the British Petroleum Company, has succeeded Philip Chappell as ICL's chairman, and Robert Wilmot, the top man in Britain for Texas Instruments Inc., has become ICL's managing director.

Britain's two-year economic slide shows signs of having bottomed out, and the nation may even be poised for a modest recovery, according to public and private economists. The latest quarterly report by the Confederation of British Industries was the least gloomy in two years. (Page D1.)