What was going on when I was born?

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 13 to 4 today to recommend that the Senate reject the nomination of Ernest W. Lefever as Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights. Five hours later, Mr. Lefever withdrew from consideration for the post. Mr. Lefever asked that his name be withdrawn in a letter to President Reagan that was made public late this afternoon by Senator S.I. Hayakawa, Republican of California. In the letter, Mr. Lefever said he was ''blameless of the charges and innuendoes against my integrity and my compassion.''

Officials of the New York City Transit Authority are unable to say what 300 bus drivers have been doing since last December when Grumman buses were taken out of service for repairs. The Transit Authority is obligated to pay the drivers under its contract with the Transport Workers Union and cannot unilaterally assign them to other work. ''They're getting paid for a contract,'' said John D. Simpson, president of the Transit Authority, in a telephone interview. ''The circumstances of the shortages are beyond their control.''

Washington, June 5 - The United States and the Soviet Union have agreed to begin talks in Washington in the next few weeks to prepare for nogotiations later in the year on limiting each side's mediumrange nuclear missiles in Europe, Administration officials said today. According to the officials, Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. and Ambassador Anatoly F. Dobrynin worked out an arrangement last month for senior aides to meet regularly, starting this month and continuing through the summer, in advance of a meeting in late September between Mr. Haig and Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko. Lawrence S. Eagleburger, Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, will conduct the discussions with Aleksandr A. Bessmertnykh, the No. 2 diplomat at the Soviet Embassy. Mr. Eagleburger will be assisted by Richard R. Burt, Director of Politico-Military affairs in the State Department, officials said. The disclosure that the Russians have agreed to the arrangement is the first indication that Moscow has apparently accepted the Reagan Administration's timetable for talks, officials said.

Members of the United Mine Workers of America are to vote today on whether to end their 10-week national strike. But whether they accept a new contract, as expected, or reject it, their union remains in desperate straits. The nation's coal industry is looking hopefully ahead to a boom, but the miners' union, once the most feared and uncompromising in the American labor movement, is itself fearful that it will not share in that boom. The miners, going against the wishes of their president, Sam M. Church Jr., and their executive board, engaged two and a half months ago in what developed as a little-understood and bitter strike that has reduced coal production by just 50 percent. Not the Usual Coal Strike This has not been just another coal strike, of which there have been at least a score in this century. Rather, it has been an extraordinary strike, for it concerns not merely money but, in the minds of many miners, saving the union.

In what Labor Department officials described as the first significant increase in a year, the nation's unemployment rate rose to 7.6 percent in May from 7.3 percent the month before. Last month's increase indicated sluggishness in the economy after a period of moderate growth, according to Government and private economists. However, the economists also said that they expected no significant economic decline this year. The sharpest increase in unemployment took place among adult men, particularly those in construction and in some manufacturing jobs, according to the statistics prepared by the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Prices of finished goods rose by only fourtenths of 1 percent last month, the Labor Department reported today, providing more evidence that inflation is slowing down. The May advance in the main Producer Price Index was half that of April and was the smallest so far this year. Falling prices for most kinds of energy and steady food prices made the biggest contribution to what economists now regard as a wellestablished trend of reduced inflation. A second index, covering intermediate goods such as flour and cloth, rose five-tenths of 1 percent, while a third index, for crude goods such as wheat and cotton, fell by that amount. Both of these also reflected what Janet L. Norwood, Commissioner of Labor Statistics, called the ''moderation'' of prices.

The White House sought today to placate businessmen unhappy with the new version of President Reagan's taxrelief plan. But business representatives said they hoped the President would reverse or modify his decision to scale back from the business tax measures he had promised in February. The Senate minority leader, Robert C. Byrd, said it had become unrealistic to expect Congress to meet the White House schedule of final passage of a tax-relief bill before the August recess. ''I don't think it's a practical assumption, given what appears to be the reality of House action no earlier than July 1,'' the West Virginia Democrat said.

The Reagan Administration has decided on a series of measures to lift trade restrictions against China imposed over the years because of its Communist Government, and also to hold extensive talks on possible sales of military equipment. State Department officials said that the National Security Council agreed yesterday on the measures, in advance of the June 14-17 visit to China by Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. The aim of the decisions, one official said, is ''to treat China as a friendly less-developed country and no longer as a member of the international Communist conspiracy.'' 'Rich Dialogue' for Haig in China A senior official said that Mr. Haig would have ''a rich dialogue'' with the Peking leaders on the possibility of selling military equipment to China, although he remarked that ''no decisions'' had been made by the Reagan Administration on how far to go in that regard.

John Gavin presented his credentials today as the new American Ambassador to Mexico to President Jose Lopez Portillo, who is flying to Washington this weekend for talks with President Reagan. The appointment of the 50-year-old actor was not well received in Mexico, where he had gained fame for television spots advertising rum. But Mr. Gavin speaks excellent Spanish and appears to have convinced skeptics in the American business community that he knows Mexico as well as most of them.

Reagan Administration officials have indicated their support for Kurt Waldheim's hopes for re-election as Secretary General, thereby removing the main barrier to his becoming the first third-term executive to preside over the Secretariat. Reagan aides insist their minds are not firmly made up, but, as one put it: ''We are not an obstacle. He's not worried about us.'' The officials say they have found that Mr. Waldheim is accommodating and that he has what one called ''politically sensitive antennae.'' Most important, these officials say, they cannot see a plausible alternative.

Japan is a nation enormously attached to formality, decorum and to a politeness that verges on the exquisite. There is a way to do things and a way not to. Anyone who steps out of line is likely to get into trouble. ''The nail that sticks out shall be hammered down,'' a proverb says. This formality governs even political debate. In politics, adherence to established principle, whether realistic or not, is greatly valued. Sudden changes without warning are anathema to the Japanese.

Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa was awarded a $100,000 prize today by the Onassis Foundation for his struggle against apartheid. Bishop Tutu was unable to attend because his passport has been withdrawn. President Constantine Caramanlis of Greece handed the prize instead to a member of the Onassis Foundation, who will pass it on to Bishop Tutu.