What was going on when I was born?

Economic problems continue to close in on Mrs. Thatcher A2 U.S. is said to have endorsed U.N. subsidies of newspapers A3 New effort to be made to get Viet- namese troops out of Cambodia A3 Around the World A5 King Hassan hints at flexibility on Western Sahara A6 Syrian denounces U.S. diplomacy on missile crisis A9 Israel accuses Syria of increasing troops in Lebanon A9 Americans give $5.5 million to Jerusalem in honor of Mayor A9 High-ranking P.L.O. representa- tive is assassinated in Brussels A10 Government/Politics City Council finance chief wants surplus funds to go for subways B3 Supreme Court Roundup B9 Burger says laws are improperly drafted B9 General Fort Wayne, Ind., battles image and economy problems A12 Around the Nation A13 11 principals get summonses for immunization violations B2 Defense, summing up, accuses po- lice of lying at Met murder trial B3 Columbia School of Public Health cuts school year to save money B3 Ex-G.O.P. leader in Suffolk con- victed on Federal tax counts B5 Industry/Labor Teamsters open convention with message from Reagan B7 Miners' president praised on trip to promote proposed contract B7 Amtrak cutting headquarters staff by 25 percent B11 News Analysis Drew Middleton examines the Is- raeli-Syrian situation A10 Steven V. Roberts discusses Democratic divisions on taxes B11 Science Times New theories may promise new help for depression C1 The world's largest yo-yo, made to test the stratosphere C1 The engineer's search for safety in smaller cars C1 Doctor's World: Assassination at- tempts and unreliable reports C3 The Science Watch C3 Education: A foundation tries to save the humanities C4 Science Q&A C5 Arts/Entertainment How does Hollywood determine whether a movie is a hit? C7 Book discounts allegations that Jefferson had a black mistress C7 Negro Ensemble Company wins an Obie award C7 Two books reporting on Nicara- gua are reviewed C9 Barbara Walters interviews three "Women of the Year" C9 Cable-TV programmers on the lookout for new shows C15 Style Notes on Fashion B8 Short pants hit their stride B8 A coming-of-age ceremony for seven older women B8 Obituaries Theodore Fred Kuper, lawyer and education aide B10 Tamar de Sola Pool, former presi- dent of Hadassah B10 Philip D. Block Jr., former execu- tive of Inland Steel B10 Sports Brooks agrees to terms and will coach Rangers C11 Phils beat Mets, 5-4; Kingman hits 12th homer C11 Martin suspended a week, fined $1,000 for bumping umpire C11 Connors and McEnroe gain French quarterfinals C11 Aching Jim Palmer has healthy statistics C11 Partez withdrawn; Belmont field at 9 C12 No progress reported in latest baseball talks C13 Dave Anderson on Cathy Rey- nolds's caddie-husband C14 Features/Notes Notes on People B5 Going Out Guide C6 Editorials/Letters/Op-Ed Editorials A14 In defense of Wall Street Proving discrimination at large Anomalously angry at Libya Topics: urban images Letters A14 Sydney H. Schanberg: sharing the goodies A15 Tom Wicker: the politics of tax re- duction A15 Richard J. Barnet: dealing with Moscow A15 Barbara Caress, Stephen Leber- stein: 40 years after firings A15 Robert H. Hayes and Modesto A. Maidique: the technology gap A15

A 19-year-old Queens woman was stabbed to death early yesterday in her apartment, apparently by a burglar who smashed through a bedroom window that was accessible from an adjoining garage roof. The victim's nude body, with a kitchen knife protruding from her chest, was discovered by her mother when she returned home at about 3 A.M. The apartment had been ransacked, a window smashed, and a trail of blood on the roof and nearby marked the escape path of the killer, who had apparently been cut by broken glass, the police said. Although burglary was regarded as the probable motive, detectives said that they had not ruled out the possibility that the victim, Felisa Kamenoff of 31-50 140th Street, Flushing, had brought someone home or had been followed home from a local discotheque she had visited earlier in the evening. Time of Death Unclear Miss Kamenoff was stabbed 29 times and had been ''sexually molested,'' according to Dr. Phito Pierre-Louis, an associate medical examiner in Queens who performed the autopsy. He said that the young woman had been stabbed in the face, arms, chest and abdomen. He would not say whether she had been raped and added that the time of her death had not yet been established.

As a graduate student experimenting with animals, Martin E.P. Seligman, now professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, unexpectedly came upon a phenomenon he later called ''learned helplessness.'' The concept he developed ultimately suggested that human depression grows out of the destructive ways that people learn to view their experiences. At about the same time, Dr. Aaron T. Beck, who is now director of the Center for Cognitive Therapy at the University of Pennsylvania, was continuing to study depression, searching for hostility and a need to suffer in his patients - important sources of depression in conventional psychoanalytic thought. Instead he found they had a view of the world that was relentlessly negative, and he later showed that their outlook could be rapidly changed through therapy. Dr. Beck's cognitive theory and Dr. Seligman's learned helplessness concept offer similar viewpoints on depression. Both have brought on a storm of research in recent years, resulting in support as well as criticism.

In laying out some $800 million in stock to purchase Iowa Beef Processors, Occidental Petroleum is acquiring a company that did for the American meat-packing industry what Henry Ford did for automobile assembly. In the process of revolutionizing the way meat is butchered and packaged, Iowa Beef forced the competition either to copy its methods or quit the business. Analysts are nearly unanimous that Occidental could not have found a better partner through which to make a major entry into the food industry. The combination of Occidental's money and Iowa Beef's experience is expected to turn the meatpacker into a worldwide processor, not only of beef but of pork products as well.

An obituary of the economist Barbara Ward yesterday incorrectly identified the founders of the International Institute for Environment and Development. It was founded in 1971 by Robert O. Anderson, chairman of the Atlantic Richfield Company, and Joseph E. Slater, president of the Aspen Institute.

No more compromises will be made on the tax program, President Reagan vowed in a meeting with the Democratic Congressional leadership, after agreeing to reduce the size of the first year's cut to 5 percent, rather than the 10 percent sought, and to delay the starting date from Jan. 1 to Oct. 1 of this year. The meeting split the Democrats on whether to continue negotiations or prepare for an all-out fight. (Page A1.) Spending for new construction fell 2.7 percent in April, at an annual rate of $244.6 billion, marking the third monthly decline in a row, the Commerce Department reported. The continuing construction drop had been expected by analysts because of high interest rates in April, making it difficult for builders to borrow. (D2.)

In 1869 the Hudson's Bay Company, founded in England in 1670 as a fur trading concern based in Canada, was granted by Queen Victoria one-twentieth of all lands surveyed for 50 years in the area north of the United States, east of the Rockies and west of Lake Winnipeg. That grant subsequently provided a vast endowment for the Hudson's Bay Oil and Gas Company, which was set up in 1926 as a joint venture between the parent trading company and the Continental Oil Company, now Conoco Inc., based in Stamford, Conn. Hudson's Bay Oil now controls 13.6 million net acres in Canada and 8.9 million net acres in foreign areas, including Indonesia. It is also the second-largest natural gas producer in Canada, with the highest gas reserves per acre.

Oil companies have begun pressing petroleum producing countries to reduce prices substantially, with some companies refusing to accept oil they consider too high-priced, petroleum industry analysts and oil traders said yesterday. Such pressures have already provoked price reductions or elimination of special surcharges by Kuwait, Iraq and Egypt. Companies discuss the accelerating moves in only the most guarded terms for fear of angering foreign suppliers. But they privately concede that the moves are prompted by the current glut of world oil, which in turn has led to painful losses by almost every refinery in the world. It is routine for companies to lose $3 or more on every barrel of oil processed in the present market, although many companies are still posting profits from their drilling operations..

A report on Bangladesh radio said this morning that Maj. Gen. Manzur Ahmed, who led the unsuccessful 48-hour rebellion against the Government, had been killed. The radio report said that General Manzur had been killed by ''angry soldiers'' shortly after his arrest yesterday. No other details were immediately available, and there was no independent confirmation of the report. Earlier, Abdus Sattar, who became Acting President of the country following the assassination of President Ziaur Rahman in the attempted coup, said that General Manzur and his four other army officers would be tried in court ''in accordance with the existing law of the land.'' They were arrested as their rebellion collapsed just 48 hours after it had begun.

Findings that could lead to large rent increases for tenants in 300,000 New York City apartments were announced yesterday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which said the cost of operating a rentstabilized building rose by 13.1 percent between April 1980 and last April. The chairman of the city's Rent Guidelines Board, which sets the maximum allowable increases each year in rentstabilized apartments, said the findings could result in increases similar to those the board set last year, which ranged from 11 to 17 percent for lease renewals of one to three years. The first of a series of public meetings held by the board - culminating on June 25, when it expects to set the increases -was scheduled for 10 A.M. today at Police Headquarters, 1 Police Plaza, in lower Manhattan. The increases will apply to leases that take effect between next Oct.1 and Sept. 30, 1982.

International The end of a revolt in Bangladesh was confirmed 48 hours after the attempted coup had begun. Maj. Gen. Manzur Ahmed, who initiated the army rebellion with the assassination of President Ziaur Rahman, was arrested, and Government troops regained control of the only area that had been held by the rebels. (Page A1, Column 1.) The Saudis will lead peace efforts in the crisis between Syria and Israel over the presence of Syrian missiles in Lebanon. Reagan Administration officials said that Saudi Arabia had agreed to increase its diplomatic role after Syria refused to accept any proposals that seemed to have originated in Israel or the United States. (A1: 2.)

Ten years after the Government began to pour billions of dollars into the National Cancer Institute to make ''war on cancer,'' a committee of Congress is beginning to raise questions about what the money has bought and whether it has been properly spent. Tomorrow, the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee will hold a hearing to air the results of a three-month staff investigation of the cancer institute. The panel's new Republican chairman, Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, is expected to raise charges that the agency has failed to manage its contracts well, permitted waste and abuse, been lax in punishing scientists who falsified data and been unaggressive in rooting out conflicts of interest among its employees. The New York Times was given access to documents growing out of the committee's investigation, with the stipulation that the information could not be revealed before the day the hearing opens. Charges Are Not New For the most part, Senator Hatch's complaints are elaborations of charges that have previously been raised either in the press or by Government investigators and do not seem to involve more than technical violations of the law. But if the charges are pursued with vigor, it might indicate that members of Congress are approaching a turning point in their traditional trusting relationship with the cancer institute and its parent, the National Institutes of Health.