What was going on when I was born?

A sports article on Sunday about Olympic board sailing omitted attri- bution for an assessment that a licens- ing agreement prevented the West German-produced Windglider from being imported into the United States. It should have been attributed to Tom Ehman, executive director of the United States Yacht Racing Union, and Robert Bavier, a United States delegate to the International Yacht Racing Union's permanent commit- tee. M&L Imports of Gloucester, Mass., says it began importing the Windglider in June, and disputes the account of Mr. Ehman and Mr. Ba- vier.

It is lunchtime here at the Seymour Smith Elementary School, and the fourth grade is lined up against the wall. The kitchen staff is busy loading gravy-smothered pork onto rice, the kind of dish that has been served up in the immaculately scrubbed cafeteria for years. But the lunch costs 10 cents more this year than it did last year, and because of new Federal guidelines, fewer youngsters qualify for a free or reduced-cost meal. Many youngsters who used to get lunch for free now must pay 40 cents, while many of those who once could get it for 10 cents now must pay the full price of 70 cents. As a result, requests for hot lunches have fallen off 21 percent, and more youngsters are bringing sandwiches from home.

The United States and the Soviet Union began talks today on reducing nuclear weapons in Europe, and spokesmen for both sides expressed satisfaction with the results of the first meeting. The chief American negotiator, Paul H. Nitze, and the chief Soviet delegate, Yuli A. Kvitsinsky, discussed ground rules and what were described as some broader issues for 90 minutes at the Soviet Mission and agreed to begin full sessions with their two delegations on Tuesday. Mr. Nitze, characterizing the meeting as ''cordial and businesslike,'' said at a news conference that ''the stakes are very high for all of us.'' A Soviet spokesman, Vladimir Yevdokushin, reported that the first contact between the two Ambassadors was ''very constructive, with both sides striving for agreement.''

The American Telephone and Telegraph Company notified the Federal Communications Commission today that it wanted to start a long-awaited data communications network within six months as the initial offering of a separate subsidiary for unregulated, competitive services. The filing was A.T.& T.'s first formal announcement of a start-up date for the subsidiary, which was authorized last year by the commission as the vehicle for A.T.& T. to expand from regulated telephone service into a number of new unregulated telecommunications fields. The commission had given the telephone company until January 1983 to start the subsidiary, but said that A.T.& T. could begin within 180 days of the filing of an acceptable capitalization plan. The new network, called the Advanced Communications Service, would be the foundation for the various computer-to-computer transmissions and services that are expected to be a major part of the subsidiary's business. The system would provide A.T.& T. customers with a network for computer processing and storage and retrieval of data.

''The people have selected Tom Kean'' - Representative James J. Florio conceding New Jersey gubernatorial election. (A1:2.)

Union workers for the private trash-collecting companies that serve the greater New York City area struck their employers at 12:01 A.M., and the carting companies said they would not pick up from any of their customers, beginning this morning. Negotiations were scheduled to resume at 11 A.M. today. Salvatore Spinelli, a lawyer for the 400 private companies said they collect between 12,000 and 15,000 tons daily in garbage and trash from some large apartment buildings and from construction sites, hotels, restaurants and other commercial establishments. The union voted ''unanimous, 100 percent,'' for the strike, according to Bernard Adelstein, secretary-treasurer of Local 813 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents the workers. Mr. Adelstein said the Teamsters would arrange for trash collection at nursing homes and hospitals.

A Federal judge ruled late yesterday that the Mobil Corporation's bid to acquire the Marathon Oil Company would violate antitrust law. As a result, a preliminary injunction was granted in Federal District Court in Cleveland that blocked Mobil's $6.5 billion takeover attempt. The ruling gave the oil industry the first clear indication that the courts might not permit major oil companies to merge with other oil companies in quest of larger oil and gas reserves. Marathon had raised the antitrust charge immediately after Mobil announced its takeover bid on Oct. 30. The ruling yesterday was the first response by the courts to its charge. In a 17-page opinion that could, if upheld, cool the interest in multibillion-dollar oil company takeovers, Judge John M. Manos said that Marathon had shown ''a reasonable probability that it will succeed at trial'' in proving that, if Mobil and Marathon were merged, there would be a substantial lessening of competition in gasoline sales in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

TO spare many patients painful and costly surgery, doctors are turning to a technique that involves inflating a balloon in arteries clogged by fatty deposits from arteriosclerosis. The balloon, inflated after being introduced into the damaged area of a blood vessel, compresses obstructions and allows more oxygenrich blood to flow to an organ. In some instances, the technique is relieving cramps and saving legs by removing obstructions to the blood supply to the lower limbs. In others, it relieves the obstructions that produce the chest discomfort called angina and might also lead to heart attacks. In addition, this method (known technically as percutaneous transluminal angioplasty) is treating, and even curing, some cases of a type of high blood pressure that results from blockage of an artery feeding the kidneys. Although such blockages cause only a small percentage of all cases of high blood pressure, the therapy can be dramatically successful, freeing the patient entirely from drug therapy.

The Marathon Oil Company won a preliminary injunction blocking a $6.5 billion takeover attempt by the Mobil Corporation on antitrust grounds. The Federal District Court in Cleveland ruled that Marathon had shown ''a reasonable probability that it will succeed at trial'' in proving that the merger would reduce competition in gasoline sales in some states. Mobil said that it had already appealed the ruling to a higher court. (Page A1.) The American Telephone and Telegraph Co. told the Federal Communications Commission that it plans to start its subsidiary for competitive, unregulated services in six months, and that a new data communications service will be the unit's first offering. (D1.)

New York City officials, under a court order to produce a plan today for expanding the city's shelters for homeless men, said yesterday that state armories would be used as winter weather drove more vagrants to seek warmth. The officials said they would inform a State Supreme Court justice of their plan at a hearing today. According to the Human Resources Administration deputy in charge of shelters, local residents and elected officials will get little advance notice - 24 hours or less -when a shelter is to be opened in their neighborhoods. Robert Trobe, the deputy administrator, said this new policy had evolved because of the strong community opposition the city has encountered when it announced its shelter sites ahead of time. Residents often maintain that the vagrants are dangerous and contribute to the deterioration of neighborhoods.

The Government's index of leading economic indicators declined 1.8 percent in October, the Government reported today, indicating that there is no immediate hope of a recovery from the recession. The decline in the index, which is intended to forecast turning points in the economy, was the third in a row and the fifth in the last six months. The index declined 2.2 percent in September and six-tenths of 1 percent in August.

After unlocking some of the most basic laws of nature in less than a decade of research, gene-splicing companies are now looking at more mundane laws - those governing property rights, contracts and liability for injury. As they gear up for the plunge into commercial markets expected to be worth billions of dollars by 1990, questions from those in the new industry are beginning to move out of the realm of legal theory and into the practices of a growing number of lawyers. The bioengineers want to know how to establish ownership of engineered living organisms, their products and the processes that use them. They want to know how to license their use and protect themselves from liability for misuse. And they want to know where the government will be involved as microbiology becomes big business.