What was going on when I was born?

Mayor Koch pledged yesterday to improve city services ''vastly'' as he formally announced his candidacy for the Democratic and Republican nominations for a second term. ''Today the delivery of services moves into first place,'' the Mayor told a crowded news conference at the New York Hilton Hotel. ''I say today that we must work in the next four years to improve the quality of life in this city, and we'll do it.'' The Mayor devoted most of his statement to pointing with pride at his record, notably ''the restoration of responsible fiscal management.'' But he also interjected often the element of running against his record on city services. He tried here to head off the opposition by promising even better times ahead.

France's new Socialist Cabinet decided today to impose an extra income tax on the very rich, a corporate tax on expense-account entertaining and other perquisites of top executives, higher taxes on luxury yachts and hotels and a ''windfall profits'' tax on banks and oil companies. The new taxes were part of a supplementary budget approved by President Francois Mitterrand and his Government at a four-hour meeting this morning. The budget must still be approved by Parliament. The revenue is to be used for a $1.2 billion package of expansionary economic measures also approved this morning, including establishment of 55,000 new Government jobs this year, a campaign against youth unemployment, construction of low-cost public housing for 50,000 families and nearly $500 million in subsidized Government credit to help companies in difficulty.

Five years ago, workers here at the oil refinery of Energy Cooperative Inc. were given a new lease on their jobs when the consortium of eight agricultural cooperatives bought the aging complex, an unprepossessing conglomeration of tanks, pipes and smokestacks, from Atlantic Richfield for $80 million. Its plan was to use Federal subsidy programs for small refiners to keep the plant alive and to supply relatively cheap fuel to farmers. But Energy Cooperative's dream ended up in Federal Bankruptcy Court in Chicago last month when the company filed for protection from creditors with claims of $432 million, becoming the first major corporate casualty of the oil glut and domestic price decontrol. Oil industry experts say, however, that many small independents, especially the crowd known in the industry as ''teapot'' refiners, may follow Energy Cooperative into extinction before the oil business recovers.

IT is the kind of apartment that you feel you could easily move right into. The rooms are bright and generous, the upholstered furniture comfortable, the bleached pine armoires nice to look at, the accessories interesting, the kitchen attractively functional and the bedroom lacy and appealing. And at a time when pastels are the dernier cri for interiors, the apartment's all-white color scheme is a relief. What is both satisfying and convenient in terms of decorating is that by limiting the palette to white and natural-colored objects, an easy decor is achieved. And, while this may not be an original decorating concept, it eminently workable.

cc22,37,14HOME C1 By GLENN COLLINS CHARLES ADDAMS - cartoonist, cemetery aficionado and Bugatti racer - eyed the approaching intersection in Hampton Bays, L.I., and kept his foot firmly on the accelerator of the Heap, his 17-foot-long van. ''Living in the Heap is like riding on a train in the great days of the first-class Pullman cars,'' he mused. ''The Heap is the poor man's Lucius Beebe railroad car.'' Suddenly the traffic light at the intersection turned amber on its way to red. Mr. Addams firmly tromped on the accelerator with his L.L. Bean hunting shoe, and the van boomed through the intersection just before the light winked red.

In his first policy reaction to Israel's raid on the Iraqi nuclear plant, President Reagan has chosen the cautious course of punishing Israel in a limited way that does not cause the Israelis to worry about his Administration's basic commitment to their security. What high officials describe as Mr. Reagan's ''very measured response'' reflects Washington's basic political and diplomatic quandary - how to balance American understanding of Israel's anxiety about a potential nuclear threat with Washington's need to protect its own credibility and influence in the Middle East, as well as to control its own arms sales policies. By suspending the scheduled shipment of four F-16 aircraft to Israel and reporting to Congress that the Israeli raid may have constituted ''substantial violation'' of the 1952 American-Israeli arms agreement, Mr. Reagan has put the Israelis on notice that they cannot expect a blank check when American interests in the region are so vividly at stake. Far Short of '75 Action But by merely suspending this one arms shipment ''for the time being'' the President has stopped far short of the kind of arms embargo that was invoked by Congress against Turkey in 1975. And he has bought time for the harder question of whether the Administration will later contend that Israel did violate the law.

The Agriculture Department today predicted a record American wheat crop for the second consecutive year, giving the United States greater flexibility in negotiating additional grain sales to the Soviet Union. The department's latest crop report, which followed yesterday's offer to resume selling grain to the Russians, estimated that the 1981 winter wheat harvest would be 2.01 billion bushels, or 54.8 million metric tons. This would be 6 percent larger than last year's crop but 3 percent less than the department forecast in May.

Gradually, and in a spirit of sober satisfaction, Israel is beginning to assess the long-term costs and benefits of its destruction of an Iraqi nuclear reactor. Despite international condemnation, officials and foreign affairs specialists are confident that the air attack on an Iraqi nuclear reactor being completed outside Baghdad is receiving quiet applause in many capitals, including those of Arab countries hostile to Iraq. Furthermore, there is some hopeful speculation - admittedly slender - that the dramatic raid may jar some Western countries out of a pattern of willingness to provide technology and fuel to any wealthy Special to the New York Times dictatorship that wants to have its own bomb.

HOME C1 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Phyllis Theroux is a freelance writer and the author of ''California and Other States of Grace.'' By PHYLLIS THEROUX IKNOW a man who collects things: spark plugs, Waring blender parts, thick, odd-sized rubber bands. He is not crazy. He uses these things, although not as fast as he saves them, which creates a storage problem. But every so often he runs across a broken 1947 Sears lawn mower and then, by God, he is the only man in town with the right part in hand. I collect quotations. I suspect that when the executors of my estate are snapping rubber bands around my possessions and come across the little snippets of wisdom I tacked around the wall they will sigh and say, ''All promise outstrips performance,'' which is from Emerson and one of the quotations I happen to have saved.

The Reagan Administration today rejected a Democratic leader's suggestion that the third year of income tax cuts in the Administration's tax bill be made contingent on realization of President Reagan's forecast of less inflation and a stronger economy. This idea has been discussed informally by Democrats for weeks. At a press breakfast this morning, the House majority leader, Representative Jim Wright of Texas, said that with such an economic ''trigger'' the Democrats might support a three-year tax-cut bill, proposed by the Administration. The Treasury's Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy, John E. Chapoton, rejected the idea on behalf of the Administration as the House Ways and Means Committee opened debate on the tax measure. Making the third year of tax relief contingent on economic events, he said, conflicted with the fundamental tenet of Administration economic policy that investors should be given certain - not uncertain - prospects of lower tax rates in the future.

Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. told Congress today that Israel might have committed ''a substantial violation'' of its arms agreements with the United States by using American-built planes in the bombing of an Iraqi nuclear reactor. He said the delivery of four F-16 fighter-bombers to the Israelis was being held up pending a review. In a letter to leaders in the Senate and House on behalf of President Reagan, Mr. Haig said that the Administration, in its study of the bombing raid, would take into account Israel's contention the attack was defensive, carried out to thwart Iraq from developing nuclear weapons for use against Israel. The Administration's decision, which followed meetings of the National Security Council last night and this morning, was relatively restrained. Authority to Halt Arms Aid Under the Arms Export Control Act, Mr. Reagan had the authority to suspend all military aid if he determined that there had been a ''substantial violation'' of Israel's 1952 military assistance agreement with the United States.

''In responding to this incident we will make clear the seriousness with which we view the obligations of foreign countries to observe scrupulously the terms and conditions under which the United States furnishes defense articles and defense services.'' - Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. (A14:3.)