What was going on when I was born?

''The era of self-doubt is over. We've stopped looking at our warts and rediscovered how much there is to love in this blessed land.''

The White House announced today that President Reagan's special envoy, Philip C. Habib, was returning from the Middle East for consultations on what the United States should do next in trying to avert an Israeli-Syrian clash over the stationing of Syrian missiles in Lebanon. For the moment, officials said, the main diplomatic efforts to resolve the situation are being left to Saudi Arabia. Although Mr. Habib's three weeks of traveling among Israel, Syria and Lebanon and his visit to Saudi Arabia did not end the crisis, Mr. Reagan and his aides took the position publicly that the mission so far had been a success because war did not break out between Israel and Syria. Begin Warns on Syrian Moves As Mr. Habib left Israel, Prime Minister Menachem Begin said Syria had mobilized reserves and deployed more antiaircraft missiles on its territory. But he said Israel would support further diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis, indicating that he would continue to withhold any order for Israeli forces to strike at the missiles. (Page A3.)

Legislation that would give cable television companies the power to refuse to broadcast ''patently offensive'' sexually explicit or violent programs on their channels was introduced here today. The measure was intended to give the cable companies greater control over what appears on their ''public access'' channels - channels they are required under their franchises with New York and other cities to make available at minimal charge to anyone who requests time. These channels have often been used, particularly in New York City, to present shows of a sexual nature.

A Marine electronic combat aircraft crashed on the flight deck of the carrier Nimitz off the northern coast of Florida late last night and plowed forward, erupting into a ball of fire that killed 14 men, destroyed three fighters and damaged 16 other aircraft. Navy spokesmen said that 45 sailors had been injured and that the accident might have been the worst in peacetime in the history of naval aviation. Twenty-one injured persons, mostly suffering burns, were taken by helicopter to a naval hospital in Jacksonville, 60 miles away. The flight deck of the carrier sustained little damage, the Navy spokesman said, and there was no damage to the ship's nuclear propulsion system. The ship was headed back to her home port in Norfolk, Va., where she was scheduled to arrive midday Thursday.

With New York City's upstate reservoirs at their highest levels in nearly a year, the Koch administration yesterday relaxed its water restrictions. Warm-weather activities such as watering lawns and filling private swimming pools will now be permitted. The administration also announced that despite a ban on opening fire hydrants except for firefighting, it would soon distribute 3,000 to 5,000 spray caps for hydrants in neighborhoods that are not near parks. The number of spray caps is smaller than the total normally handed out during the summer, but it apparently was a concession to urban reality, especially on hot days in poorer sections of the city.

Dome Petroleum Ltd. said early today that it had been offered an estimated 53 million shares of Conoco Inc. under a tender offer and that it would buy 22 million of them at $65 a share. The purchase will cost Dome $1.43 billion, net to the sellers, a Dome official said. The bid by Dome was originally made for 14 million shares in Conoco, the ninth-largest United States oil company, but Dome said at the time it might take as many as 22 million. The response to the tender, representing an unprecedented 52 percent of Conoco's total outstanding, was announced just two days after a Federal judge in Oklahoma City refused to grant Conoco a preliminary injunction to bar the purchase.

Operating night and day, six days a week, the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island, the world's biggest garbage dump, is the final resting place for the 10,000 tons of domestic garbage produced daily by three million New Yorkers. Great steel jaws suspended from cranes gobble up 10 cubic yards of garbage in a bite. Steel-treaded wagon trains of garbage, pulled by bulldozers, creep away over garbage-packed trails, up garbage hills, across eerie garbage plains. Any resemblance to some technological wonder, however, is more fanciful than accurate. In fact, Fresh Kills is an outmoded dumping ground that has come under increasing legal and political pressures for improvement.

The stock market's ''OPEC rally'' gained momentum yesterday, sending the Dow Jones industrial average sharply higher in stepped-up trading. Airline, brokerage and bank issues spearheaded the general advance. After gaining 12.24 points Tuesday, mostly in late-afternoon trading, the Dow staged another afternoon run-up yesterday to finish at 993.14, up 9.18 points. It declined 14.23 points last week.

The Republican chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Bob Dole, and the Democratic chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Dan Rostenkowski, said today that they had narrowed their differences over a tax-relief bill and that the next concession had to come from President Reagan. ''We're close enough that we ought to discuss it with the Administration,'' Senator Dole said to reporters after he and Representative Rostenkowski conferred privately for an hour this afternoon. Mr. Dole added that they would have breakfast tomorrow morning with the Secretary of the Treasury, Donald T. Regan. Mr. Rostenkowski refused to give any details before he meets tomorrow afternoon with the 22 other Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee. In response to questions, however, he indicated that differences remained on the question of how to cut tax rates. The Administration has said that rates should be cut uniformly across the board. Mr. Rostenkowski was reported by Republican sources to be advocating larger percentage reductions for taxpayers with incomes below $50,000, along the lines of a bill drafted by the Finance Committee in 1980.

WASHINGTON THEY all have secure phones, which means no one can listen in while they're talking to their carpenters. And they all have something called Signal, a government screening/answering service that connects their new homes to the White House so that they or their husbands can be reached at a moment's notice. They also have two or three functions to attend each day, often followed by black-tie events at night, and the responsibility of organizing their homes and the lives of their families without losing sight of their own needs. But after four months, the wives of some of the most influential men in the Reagan Administration, Ursula Meese, Carolyn Deaver, Patricia Haig and Jane Weinberger, have settled into Washington, more or less. Of these, Ursula Meese, whose husband, Edwin, is the chief counselor to the President, seems most at ease with her latest move. She has wasted no time establishing herself in her new community. She was just made chairman of the Ambassador's Ball, which takes place in September. ''And I was one of the bunny rabbits at the annual White House Easter egg roll,'' she said. ''I figure if I'm here, I might as well live it up.''

Differences over a tax-relief bill have been narrowed, said Bob Dole, the Republican chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Dan Rostenkowski, the Democratic chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. They indicated the next concession had to come from President Reagan. Mr. Rostenkowski said disagreements remained over such issues as the across-the-board rate cuts favored by the Administration. (Page A1.) United States business productivity rose 4.3 percent during the first quarter, its largest gain in three and a half years, the Labor Department reported. The gain, revised from an earlier estimate of 3.9 percent, was said to reflect the economy's overall strength. (D1.)

The expected Republican support for the re-election of Mayor Koch was threatened yesterday. Brooklyn Republican leaders openly questioned whether they could reject the mayoral candidacy of their fellow Republican, Assemblyman John A. Esposito of Queens, in favor of the Democratic Mayor. Their action took on significance far beyond the borough because Mayor Koch has insisted on the support of the Brooklyn G.O.P. organization, the largest in the city, as a condition of his acceptance of Republican endorsement, even if he had to battle Mr. Esposito in the Sept. 10 G.O.P. primary.