What was going on when I was born?

The House of Representatives approved the Administration's tax reduction bill by 238 to 195 in a decisive victory for President Reagan. The Senate overwhelmingly approved a similar bill earlier in the day. The bills provide for a 25 percent cut in individual income taxes over three years and several business tax reductions. (Page A1.) Congressmen said the President lobbied heavily to win their votes. (D21.) The economic effects of the radical change in tax policy are questioned by some experts, who foresee sizable budget deficits and high interest rates. (A1.) The President's victory shows a political mastery of Congress not seen since that of President Lyndon B. Johnson in the mid-1960's. (A1.)

Mixed-race group in Namibia seeks political allies A2 Haig delays push in Congress to sell Awacs to Saudis A3 Washington sets terms for uranium shipments to India A4 Aide's visit to Latin America to demonstrate France's interest A6 In Ulster, tears of joy and flags of mourning A10 Excerpts from wedding sermon by Archbishop of Canterbury A11 For expatriates, wedding lights up celebration far from London A11 Government/Politics U.S. lists 34 most-polluted streams A13 Detroit appears to overcome union resistance to rescue plan A14 Two House members announce voting rights compromise A14 Associates of former C.I.A. official sought in oil theft. A17 Senate panel to rule on Williams by Aug. 24 B2 Brigham leaving tomorrow as city's Budget Director B3 DelGiudice leaving as Carey's director of policy management B4 Inflation rate dropped sharply in New York in first half of '81 B8 Central Labor Council expected to endorse Barbaro for Mayor B9 General Tourist-conscious San Francisco worried about muggers A12 Budget would let Amtrak operate 85% of its routes A16 Ivy League colleges investigate $1,000 loans to 12 athletes B1 The City B2 Hundreds flee fire in 34th St. subway station B9 Washington Post denies rumor it may start a tabloid B11 The Home Section Home Living in the cathedral close at St. John the Divine C1 Polish mahogany like a professional C7 Saint Laurent: Shorter skirts, bubble shapes C1 Limiting children's TV habits C1 Hers C2 Helpful Hardware C2 Home Beat C3 Private teams help in care of elderly C3 Home Improvement C4 Calendar of Events C5 Starting over in a one-room apartment C8 Historic buildings: Keeping them safe C9 Design Notebook C10 Use of ground bone is subject of debate C11 Gardening C12 Health/Science New drug said to aid succass of liver and other transplants B13 Nominee for Surgeon General clears Congressional standoff B13 Education/Welfare Marxist loses bid for chair at University of Maryland B11 Arts/Entertainment Alicia de Larrocha in Mostly Mozart recital C15 A critic speculates on why buildings grow on us C15 Japanese painter Hisao Domoto winning struggle for style C17 Biography of dancer Ruth St. Denis is reviewed C18 American TV covered the royal wedding regally C18 The Cleveland Quartet plays in Mostly Mozart festival C19 Sports Owners and players to resume baseball negotiations today D23 Players, in Coast meeting, express support for negotiator D23 Former Boston College player, 4 others indicted for conspiracy D23 Ewing, 7-footer, getting tall test in Festival play D23 Attendance, betting records set in opener at Saratoga D24 Great Lakes team takes hockey medal at Festival D25 U.S. five beats Soviet Union for gold in University Games D25 George Vecsey on the maternal touch D25 Features/Notes Man in the News: Charles, Prince of Wales A10 Woman in the News: Diana, the Princess of Wales A10 Notes on People B6 Obituaries Bishop James Edward Walsh, missionary jailed in China B17 News Analysis Leonard Silk analyzes President's tax program A1 Hedrick Smith assesses Reagan's victories in Congress A1 Editorials/Letters/Op-Ed Editorials A18 Robert Moses's time Trucks on a Reagan curve Water to donate, not to waste Letters A18 Anthony Lewis: the neglected question A19 Stuart Woods: administering the coup de grass A19 Rosanne Klass: Afghan rebels battle on A19 Robert Watson: to 'New Jerseyize' A19

A table in Business Day on Tuesday incorrectly defined the maximum term of a lease under the Senate Finance Committee tax bill. The bill says terms of a lease cannot exceed a period equal to the Asset Depreciation Range midpoint life of the property.

Leading officials from the Justice Department and the American Telephone and Telegraph Company asked a Federal judge today to recess an historic antitrust suit for 11 months, but the motion was promptly denied. Meanwhile, there was increased speculation that the Administration, having failed to suspend the trial to give Congress a chance to enact legislation on telecommunications, might move to dismiss the case. In a hearing at noon today in the chambers of Judge Harold H. Greene, William Baxter, Assistant Attorney General for antitrust matters, and Howard Trienens, general counsel of A.T.& T., said that they had agreed to an amendment of a pending telecommunications bill that, if accepted, would convince the Administration to drop the suit. Bill Passage Questioned Mr. Baxter reportedly said that he believed it would be difficult to pass legislation with the trial in progress.

In a decisive victory for President Reagan, the House of Representatives today approved the Administration's tax cut bill. The measure provides for three years of reductions totalling 25 percent in individual tax rates and major reductions in taxes paid by business and by oil producers. The key vote, 238 to 195, gave Mr. Reagan a third upset victory over the Democratic House majority on fiscal issues. The President won by virtue of the same coalition of Republicans and Southern Democrats that brought him victory in May on the budget resolution and in June on the budget reconciliation bill.

In 190 days President Reagan has not only wrought a dramatic conservative shift in the nation's economic policies and the role of the Federal Government in American life but has also swept to a political mastery of Congress not seen since Lyndon B. Johnson. With stunning victories today, the President has won Congressional approval for the largest budget and tax cuts in modern American history, changes that his partisans have termed ''the Reagan revolution,'' inviting comparisons to the early New Deal period of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Republicans Are Euphoric The ease with which the Reagan forces scored their 238-to-195 vote of victory on the tax battle in the House of Representatives, on the heels of an 89-to-11 tax victory in the Senate, demoralized Democrats and sent Republicans into euphoria. ''This means the President has effective control of the House,'' said Representative Charles Wilson, a Texas Democrat who had fought the Reagan tax bill. ''I would advise the Democratic leadership not to stage any more Armageddons.''

In a blaze of martial and spiritual pageantry on a glorious summer morning, the Prince of Wales took as his wife today a shy and charming member of one of the kingdom's greatest families. The 2,500 guests inside Christopher Wren's Baroque masterpiece, St. Paul's Cathedral, the hundreds of thousands who watched the wedding party ride in magnificent horse-drawn carriages from Buckingham Palace to the cathedral and back and the 700 million television viewers around the world witnessed a fairy tale come to life: the handsome Prince Charles in naval uniform marrying the lovely 20-yearold Diana Spencer, daughter of an earl, amid the sort of splendor the modern world has all but forgotten. All the panoply of monarchy was deployed on this, one of the great days in the history of the House of Windsor: the stirring music of Handel and Purcell and Elgar; the Household Cavalry, in their burnished breastplates and helmets with red plumes; the stately royal horses, caparisoned in silver; almost all of the reigning sovereigns of Europe, come in their finery to share in the happy occasion, and the royal bride herself, resplendent in a gown of pale ivory, with puffy sleeves and a train 25 feet long.

An important gauge of future economic strength fell sharply in June for the second month in a row, but private and Government economists differed on whether the decline meant that a recession was on the way. The Government's index of leading indicators, which is designed to forecast coming economic trends, dropped 1.3 percent in June after falling 1.5 percent the month before, the Commerce Department reported today. Theodore Torda, an analyst at the Commerce Department, said the index's ''recent behavior is consistent with our view that there will be no early end to the business slowdown.'' But, he added, ''It would be premature to say that behavior would signal a recession.''

-------------------------------------------------------------------- David Lowe is a freelance writer and the author of ''Lost Chicago'' and ''Chicago Interiors.'' By DAVID LOWE NESTLED to the south of the gray granite vastness of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on Morningside Heights is a cluster of brick and stone structures as varied in architecture as is the eclectic Episcopal cathedral itself. At Amsterdam Avenue and Cathedral Parkway are housed the 200-pupil Cathedral School, the diocesan offices, the 10,000-volume Cathedral Library, meeting and counseling rooms, and apartments for visiting clergymen and lecturers. Scattered among these spaces are nine households connected with the workings of the world's largest Gothic church. The homes in the cathedral close range from the palatial French Renaissance-style chateau that contains the quarters of Paul Moore Jr., Bishop of New York, down to the modest apartments of young canons.

Ronald Reagan's radical change in United States fiscal policy, aimed at cutting back the role of the Federal Government in the United States economy, has come to pass. The approval of the President's tax program yesterday by the House and the Senate will translate into a tax cut that will amount to $150 billion in three years, by far the biggest tax cut in the nation's history. That tax cut follows actions by a Senate-House conference committee that will reduce the Government's public expenditures by $36 billion next year and, according to President Reagan, by a cumulative total of $140 billion over the next three years, which Mr. Reagan called ''the most sweeping cutbacks in the history of the budget.'' The tax and budget cuts certainly represent the most striking change of direction since the New Deal in the balance between the public and private sectors of the American economy. A Question of Inflation The aim of the conservative Republicans who made this fiscal counterrevolution - with the help of Democratic conservatives and even some liberals who were carried along in an effort to maintain their political strength - is to revitalize American capitalism and to bring inflation under control.

The deposed President of Iran, Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, was granted political asylum in France today after a dramatic night flight from Teheran in a hijacked Iranian plane. Looking gaunt and tired, the former Iranian leader, who was without his mustache, told reporters: ''I will be staying in France until the people of Iran follow the path of democracy.'' Although his extradition was immediately demanded by the Iranian Government, Mr. Bani-Sadr, 48 years old, will be permitted to stay in France so long as he refrains from political activity. He signed an agreement to that effect before leaving the military airfield at Evreux, near Paris, where his plane landed at 4:30 A.M. today.

THURSDAY, JULY 30, 1981 International The wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer was held in a blaze of martial and spiritual pageantry. The 2,500 guests in St. Paul's Cathedral, the hundreds of thousands who watched along the processional route and the 700 million televison viewers around the world witnessed one of the great days in the history of the House of Windsor amid the sort of splendor that the world has all but forgotten. (Page A1, Columns 1-3.) Rousing choruses of ''Rule Britannia'' were sung by joyful Britons who saluted their troubled old land with tears, triumphant greetings and dancing in the streets in a sea of small Union Jacks. ''It's a great day to be British,'' remarked a retired factory worker, his voice breaking as the Prince and Princess of Wales waved to the joyous crowd from a balcony of Buckingham Palace. (A10:1-2.)