What was going on when I was born?

Did the maker of America's most popular pain-killing pills buy up an innovative electronic pain-killing device in order to stifle the product's development and thereby protect its own drug business? That question lies at the heart of a court battle between Johnson & Johnson and three inventors from Minnesota who sold their young company and its electronic pain reliever to the health care giant seven years ago. Last July a Federal jury in Minneapolis ruled that Johnson & Johnson had fraudulently bought the electronic painkilling product in order to quietly suppress the device and head off new competition for its drug business. The court ordered the New Brunswick, N.J., company to pay $170.4 million in damages and antitrust fines. According to Judge Miles Lord of the United States District Court in Minneapolis, the evidence before the jury indicated that Johnson & Johnson had engaged in fraud of ''the most extreme and culpable nature.''

-------------------------------------------------------------------- Doris Funnye Innis is a freelance writer and researcher. By DORIS FUNNYE INNIS PRECISELY at 11 A.M., Bach's Prelude and Fugue in C major fills the stilled church. The ushers are at their posts, their white suits a dramatic contrast to the maroon-robed choir waiting for the start of the processional. Sunday morning worship service at Harlem's Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, founded in 1796, the oldest organized black church in New York City, has begun. In the lower-level kitchen, Roland Baker, his white shirt and trousers spotless despite the fact that he wears no apron, is sauteeing rice before putting it in the oven. Mr. Baker, who was born in Atlanta, has been a professional cook for 55 years. For more than 40 of those years he has cooked Sunday dinner at Mother Zion, at 140 West 137th Street. Moving with the agility of a man half his age, he is a study in kitchen choreography, stirring the cornbread mix, slicing, chopping, basting, tasting, checking on everything.

The Consumer Price Index jumped 1.2 percent in July, the fastest inflation pace in 16 months, the Labor Department said. For the three previous months the average advance was six-tenths of 1 percent. Analysts said the surge - 15.2 percent at an annual rate - hurt prospects for lower interest rates. (Page A1.) New-car sales by the Big 3 rose 20.3 percent in mid-August, helped by rebates and other sales incentives, the auto makers reported. The seasonally adjusted annual selling rate of 7.9 million domestic units was the highest since mid-March. (D1.)

THOUSANDS of people crowded into this city along the shores of Monterey Bay in central California last weekend to toast the squid, an ugly mollusk with an identity problem whose friends call it ''the food of the future.'' To show their admiration for squid, they ate thousands of pounds of it -baked, stuffed, sauteed, fried, minced and marinated. At less than $1 a pound wholesale, it was a relatively inexpensive testimonial. Reflecting the squid's image problem, the event was called the Second Annual Calamari Festival. The promoters used the Italian name for what is biologically related to clams and oysters and abalone but which, at least in America, has suffered from a reputation comparable to that of a being from a monster movie. The squid's tentacles and reservoir of dark ink used to conceal its retreat from predators have helped to foster its poor reputation. Its admirers say that if people would forget the image they would like squid by any other name.

''There is no doubt that the cause of world peace has been advanced by this Sino-American friendship.'' - Jimmy Carter. (A13:5.)

IUSED to get headaches all the time: when I was writing on deadline, doing a lot of sewing, preparing for a dinner party, driving in heavy traffic. I attributed them to a variety of causes, including eyestrain and allergic reactions to my colleague's tobacco smoke and to the fumes from my gas stove. But not until I awoke one morning from a bad dream with my teeth tightly clenched did I get a hint of the real reason - a reaction to stress. Over the next several weeks, I realized that whenever I was concentrating hard on something (even opening a stubborn package or chopping an onion) or feeling tense or anxious, I clenched my teeth. After a while, the strain on the supporting muscles would result in a headache. It was an unconscious reaction, a habit that I was able to break by becoming acutely aware of it and making a conscious effort to relax my jaw when formerly I would have tightened it. Now tension headaches, which account for 80 percent of the head pains that afflict Americans, rarely sneak through my surveillance.

In an article Monday, current passenger volume of commuter airlines was misstated. The correct figure is 6 of every 10 seats filled.

The State Department and a leading American Jewish refugee organization said today that they opposed an Israeli plan to curtail the flow of Soviet Jews to countries other than Israel. The statements, by the State Department and United Hias Service, the immigrant aid group, reflect a dispute over the growing number of Jews from the Soviet Union who decide to move to the United States. Emigration Seen Jeopardized The Israelis contend that the refusal of many Soviet Jews to settle in Israel jeopardizes the emigration of others, and Israel has therefore decided to put pressure on emigres by not helping them go elsewhere unless they have close family ties in other countries. State Department officials assert that Israel's new policy derives from its traditional effort to foster immigration and its frustration at seeing so many Soviet Jews reject settlement in Israel.

Speak of capital gains, and an image of wealthy people with expansive portfolios of stocks and other assets generally comes to mind. In fact, that image is not too far off the mark, and the topbracket taxpayers are indeed getting the most substantial reductions in gains taxes under the new tax law. But tax and investment advisers also say that the new law's more favorable treatment of capital gains should prompt nearly everyone to review his investments and financial plans. Not only will the new provisions affect taxes on existing investments, but they could also alter the relative appeal of various investment markets. And they could affect employees' choices in benefit plans and pension payments. Benefit for Workers ''Many workers who do not have personal holdings of stocks and other properties may still be allowed to take capital gains treatment of their pension benefits,'' Peter Elinsky, a partner at Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co., an accounting firm, said in an interview.

In late April, the stock market reached its highest level in more than eight years. Signs were that the prolonged period of high interest rates was finally easing, and enthusiasm for the Reagan Administration's budget and tax proposals fed a new mood of optimism on Wall Street. Since reaching that peak of 1,024.05, the Dow Jones industrial average, the oldest and best-known gauge of stock trends, has fallen almost 125 points. And just as investors and analysts generally credited the Reagan Administration for the April surge in stock prices, they are holding it responsible for much of the decline.

The Consumer Price Index rose by 1.2 percent in July, the fastest pace for inflation in 16 months, the Labor Department reported today. The index now stands at 274.4, which means that goods and services that cost $10 in 1967 cost $27.44 today. Although most analysts had expected some acceleration in prices after three months in which the average advance was just six-tenths of 1 percent, today's result was surprisingly large. Interest Rate Decline Threatened One immediate implication is that the increase seems to lessen prospects for an early decline in interest rates, which is a cornerstone of the Administration's overall economic strategy.

In an article Aug. 11 about changes in the Nuclear Regulatory Commis- sion, a word was omitted from a quota- tion attributed to Donald C. Winston of the Atomic Industrial Forum. His full statement, in addressing the difficul- ties faced by the nuclear power indus- try, was, ''The real problem is utility economics.''