What was going on when I was born?

Leading economists echo President Reagan's assessment that the economy will remain ''soggy'' in the coming months, but they also warn that continuing high interest rates and the specter of inflationary Government deficits will hamper the President's recovery program well beyond the near-term. The economists say that until these negative factors are removed, the economy will remain stagnant, despite the cut in tax rates. And they are not impresssed by some of the recent positive economic indicators. ''The economy has really gone nowhere since the first quarter of 1979,'' said Alan Reynolds, chief economist for Polyconomics Inc., a private consulting firm. ''I don't think we are going to get out of this trap until we get a credible long-term monetary policy which will ensure the purchasing power of the dollar over the years.''

Controllers' Strike About one-fifth of Atlantic flights normally controlled by Portuguese air controllers were rerouted by the Federal Aviation Administration in response to the controllers' 48-hour boycott imposed in support of the American strikers. The boycott began at 8 last night and was to continue through 8 Tuesday evening. The F.A.A. established two new flight routes that will affect about 20 percent of trans-Atlantic originating in Southern Europe and North Africa. (Page A1, Column 6.) International Polish students postponed marches they had planned to call for the release of five men they said were political prisoners. The demonstrations had been opposed by the Government, the Solidarity union and the Roman Catholic Church. A final decision on whether to hold the marches will be made Saturday, an organizer said. (A1:4.) ''A wrong was done to Israel'' when the Reagan Administration suspended delivery of 16 fighter planes after the Israeli attack on an Iraqi nuclear reactor last month, Prime Minister Menachem Begin told reporters in English and Hebrew. Speaking after the first meeting held by the Cabinet of his coalition Government, he said that President Reagan had ''decided to right that wrong'' and that he expected the suspension to be lifted in the next few days. (A1:5.)

''We will publish a Monday newspaper and hopefully forevermore.'' -Craig Ammerman, executive editor of The Bulletin in Philadelphia. (A1:1.)

Back in 1976, when Phyllis Starr Wilson was managing editor of Glamour magazine, one of Conde Nast's imposing stable of women's publications, she felt that women's magazines were not doing enough for the over-30 set. So she whipped up a prospectus for a magazine geared for women of all ages. She thought of calling it Woman or Self. The following year, S.I. Newhouse Jr., Conde Nast's chairman, got excited about a physical fitness magazine, since fitness articles in Conde Nast magazines were much savored by readers. Ultimately, the powers decided to combine the two notions, and have Mrs. Wilson edit the result. Thus, in late 1977, Conde Nast disclosed that it would give birth to a magazine in January 1979, its first new arrival since Glamour hit the racks 40 years before. The creation would be called Self.

NEW YORK'S FIRST INDIA DAY PARADE: Dancers performing on a float bearing the portrait of Mohandas K. Gandhi yesterday during the India Day Parade on Madison Avenue. This weekend was chosen for the parade because Saturday marked the anniversary of India's independence from Britain in 1947. Page B3.

In the manuscript of his book on life in prison, Jack Henry Abbott wrote that he was tortured, along with six or seven other inmates, at the Federal Penitentiary in Marion, Ill., on April 28, 1980. In grim detail, Mr. Abbott described how nine masked guards armed with plastic clubs forced him into a disciplinary cell, spread his body across a ''steel buck'' and flogged him until his spine was black and the rear of his head was a ''thick row of lumps from ear to ear.'' ''They made me beg for my life,'' Mr. Abbott wrote. ''I could only crawl.'' This account of brutality, denied by prison officials, never appeared in Mr. Abbott's much-acclaimed book, ''In the Belly of the Beast,'' based on his letters to the author Norman Mailer between 1977 and 1980. At the last minute the account was withdrawn by Mr. Abbott, who according to his editors at Random House later explained that its removal had been part of a ''deal'' he made to get out of prison after nearly two decades.

''I'd rather be lucky than good,'' Lefty Gomez said when he was pitching for the Yankees more than 40 years ago. Yesterday at Shea Stadium, Ellis Valentine lent some validity to that philosophy as he led the Mets to a 5-2 triumph over the Philadelphia Phillies and back into a first-place tie in the National League East. The right fielder, playing in only his 11th game since being acquired from the Montreal Expos, knocked in two runs with a pop fly that bounced off the glove of Gary Matthews and fell on the leftfield line for a double. Then with the Phillies trailing, 4-1, in the fifth inning, Pete Rose led off with a single and Manny Trillo followed with a hard liner that bounced in front of Valentine. Rose tore around second and headed for third. Valentine uncorked a long, high throw that arrived on the fly in the glove of Hubie Brooks, the third baseman, one yard ahead of Rose's head-first slide.

The steel business, a sampler of all that ails basic American industry, is showing signs of faint recovery. Profits are improving, and in recent months steel companies have announced investment projects totaling more than $5 billion, spurred by recent changes in Government policy, including the new tax law. On the other hand, steel producers seem unexcited about their industry's prospects, saying they will need additional tax breaks to become fully competitive. They seem distracted by the wave of corporate combinations now engulfing big business. In the last few weeks the United States Steel Corporation, the industry leader, has added lines of bank credit totaling $3 billion to its $1.8 billion in cash on hand. The company says it is looking for an acquisition outside the steel industry.

Somewhere, F. Scott Fitzgerald and James A. Farley must be sorry. The 68-year-old Biltmore Hotel -long the traditional New York headquarters for the Ivy League and preppy set as well as for Democratic politicians - is about to become a bank's headquarters. The two worlds of the Biltmore Hotel, which opened in 1913, spun side by side through two World Wars, boom and bust, Prohibition and Repeal -and through decades of social upheaval that changed the Democratic Party almost as much as it changed the people who had met or continued to meet, Fitzgerald-style, ''under the clock at the Biltmore.'' However crowded the benches beneath it once were, the clock at the entrance to the Palm Court was just a memory yesterday. ''It's a shame to see it all go - we used to have college kids by the millions on Thanksgiving and football weekends,'' Mario Barry, a doorman who started at the Biltmore in 1943, said yesterday. ''Lately some of the young people are here to see where their parents met and danced. During the war, we used to put guests to bed in the Turkish baths and in rollaway beds in the banquet rooms.''

LATROBE, Pa. ASIGN startles the visitor coming here to St. Vincent College, where the Pittsburgh Steelers have trained for 13 years. The sign with the arrow on the campus road says ''St. Vincent Cemetery'' and it has its symbolism. The playing fields have been the burial ground of the career of many a young football player who tried and failed to win a place on the Steeler teams, the ones that dominated the National Football League through most of the 1970's. The older players remained so good so long that openings for newcomers were all but nonexistent. This summer is different, however. The Steelers last season lost seven games, failing to qualify for the N.F.L. playoffs for the first time in nine years. There are job openings, and the squad that leaves St. Vincent on Aug. 28 could have a dozen new faces. There might be as many as nine changes in the lineups that start the season on Sept. 6.

The sluggishness of the economy may last longer than the few months that President Reagan has forecast, according to leading economists. They warn that sustained high interest rates and the specter of continuing deficits in the Federal budget could retard economic recovery for a much longer period. They also say that currently economic indicators might be decewptive. (D1.)

For many Vietnamese, refuge in Macao is a Catch-22 A2 Portugal's former Prime Minis- ter is asked to return A3 Iran's President assails leftist Mujahedeen A6 After many delays, Zaire com- pletes giant power line A7 Enriched uranium from Soviet figures in trade with U.S. A8 Around the World A9 Government/Politics Democratic Comptroller candi- dates trade barbs in debate B3 Medicaid payments are going to the dead, Goldin charges B3 General Jazz festival is a symbol for a black community in Chicago A10 Ad by Denver resident highlights debate on court-order busing A10 Around the Nation A10 Radioactive cleanup to begin at Three Mile Island A13 Juveniles tied to 23% of violent crimes against individuals A13 For the Biltmore Hotel, the fa- mous clock has run out B1 A modern Hudson Valley farmer faces melon season B1 The City B3 India Day parade brightens Madison Avenue B3 A melange of old and new buses greets New Yorkers B3 A water main break affects resi- dents of Jersey City B3 Style Relationships: More than your best friend B12 For rural women, a changing landscape B12 When the therapist is away, pa- tients do not play B12 Child care in United States is criticized B12 SportsMonday Auto Racing: Laffite captures Austrian Grand Prix C9 Baseball: Tigers beat Yankees on Gibson's three-run homer C1 Valentine leads Mets' 5-2 vic- tory over Phillies C1 Hits by Garvey, Cey give Dodg- ers 6-5 victory over Braves C5 Murray drives in 6 runs, but Orioles lose to White Sox C4 Columns: George Vecsey on the owners' cookie monster C4 Red Smith on Saratoga's poly- chromatic canoe C7 Features: Sports World Specials C2 Question Box C9 Football: Can the Steelers make a comeback? C1 Buttle of Jets gets unusual gift and police protection C6 Perkins sees the Giants making progress C7 Golf: Hubie Green wins Greater Hartford Open C3 Jan Stephenson wins 54-hole L.P.G.A. tourney on a 64-198 C3 Horse Racing: De La Rose wins Diana Handicap at Saratoga C7 Outdoors: Hunting game with bow and arrow C9 Soccer: Cosmos beat Manic, clinch regular-season title C3 Statistics C10 Tennis: Mary Piatek wins first tournament as a professional C3 Track: East Germany sweeps European title; Coe wins 800 C8 Industry/Labor Arbitrator to consider city union's case on political donations B5 Arts/Entertainment Presidential task force on arts backs continued U.S. funds C11 Incoming musicals face shortage of theater space C11 "Maggie and Pierre" to open Phoenix season Sept. 17 C11 Maine Opera Association puts on Beethoven's "Fidelio" C12 Sir Isaiah Berlin's wartime dis- patches to be published C13 Dime-a-Dance Company brings humor to the art C14 Folk Festival reunites the protest singers of 60's C14 Book about some Christian heroes and heroines is reviewed C14 Alice Cooper and band reprise 10 rock years at Savoy C15 Obituaries Robert Herridge, television pro- ducer and writer B15 Utah leader of polygamous sect found dead in prison B15 Features/Notes Notes on People B11 Going Out Guide C12 News Analysis James M. Markham assesses the struggle for power in Poland A3 Editorials/Letters/Op-Ed Editorials A14 Crime, punishment and crime Code makers, and breakers Getting rarer Letters A14 Flora Lewis: socialist foreign policy? A15 Benjamin J. Stein: housing bust A15 C.P. Snow: scientists and bombs A15 Al Ullman and Robert L. Spence: estate tax cuts defended A15 Stuart Brotman: data flood issues A15