What was going on when I was born?

A sharp rise in layoffs in heavy industry last month pushed the nation's unemployment rate up to 8.4 percent, from 8 percent in October. The November level was the highest since the severe recession of 1974-75, when it reached 9 percent. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today that 9,004,000 people were jobless in November out of a total work force of 107 million. The unemployment rates in New York State and New Jersey were 7.5 percent, significantly below the national rate, but higher than their October levels. New York City, because of its high proportion of white-collar workers, did not show the weakening of employment that was evident nationally. (Page 9.)

Marvin Mandel, former Governor of Maryland, leaving Federal prison near Pensacola, Fla., after serving 19 months of a three-year term for mail fraud and racketeering. He flew to Baltimore, ''delighted'' with his freedom. President Reagan commuted his sentence Thursday.

By a vote of 84 to 5, the Senate today approved a $208 billion military appropriation bill, the largest financing measure ever to pass a chamber of Congress. Howard H. Baker Jr., the Senate majority leader, termed the measure ''historic.'' The Tennessee Republican said the bill ''may indeed set the tone and shape the form of defense in this country for decades to come.'' The bill exceeded President Reagan's own budget request by almost $8 billion and last year's record allocation by $37 billion. This huge increase reflected the widespread view on Capitol Hill that last year Americans voted for higher military outlays, even at the expense of domestic social programs.

A former Green Beret who said he was on a C.I.A. assignment when he shot a Libyan student here last year was convicted today of two misdemeanor charges of assault but acquitted of three charges of attempted murder. The case against the defendant, Eugene Aloys Tafoya, assumed international dimensions when the police and prosecutors theorized he had been paid by Libya to assassinate the student, Faisal Zagallai. Mr. Zagallai, a student at Colorado State University, had been a persistent critic of the Libyan Government. One juror, Gene Webb, 31 years old, said the county court jury believed Mr. Tafoya was working for the Libyans. They dismissed testimony from Mr. Tafoya that he was working for the Central Intelligence Agency at the time he shot Mr. Zagallai, or that he had acted in self-defense.

President Reagan issued an executive order today that broadens the authority of the nation's intelligence agencies to collect information from Americans at home and abroad. It authorizes the Central Intelligence Agency for the first time to conduct covert operations domestically. The 17-page order omits most of the provisions of an earlier draft that were opposed by members of the House Text of order, pages 18-19. House and Senate Intelligence committees and civil liberties groups, including a section that would have permitted the C.I.A. to infiltrate and influence American organizations without a court warrant. The order signed today replaces an executive order signed by President Carter on Jan. 24, 1978, that is the basic framework for all intelligence activities. The new order, like its predecessor, has the force of law.

Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. called on Western Hemisphere nations today to cooperate in stopping a regional arms race, accusing Nicaragua of a military buildup that ''is but a prelude to a widening war in Central America.'' In a speech to the Organization of American States General Assembly here, Mr. Haig also outlined a new eco- Excerpts from Haig's speech, page 4. nomic assistance program for the Caribbean basin that included proposals for one-way free trade agreements with small nations in the area. He said the program would also allow for increased emergency aid for nations with acute fiscal problems.

Barefoot, Nancy Reagan helps decorate 19-foottall Christmas tree in the Blue Room of the White House.

The Ivy League, whose eight universities have football programs that are among the oldest in the nation, today lost a long battle to maintain its traditional place among the most powerful teams. The action resulted from a special convention of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which voted to set criteria on home attendance and stadium-seating capacity that half the Ivy League teams cannot meet. For universities that stress the business aspects of football and the subsequent financial rewards from television contracts and ticket sales, the Ivy League's loss in status - they are not expected to lose financially - was viewed as a victory. Struggle Over Television Rights Control of television property rights was the central issue in today's action. The College Football Association, a special-interest group of 61 of the country's most powerful teams, was seeking a greater hand in shaping policy on network television contracts. Only four months ago the C.F.A. schools threatened to break from the traditional arrangement, and they went so far as to negotiate a contract of their own.

The official Soviet press reported today that Andrei D. Sakharov, the nuclear physicist and human rights activist, and his wife, Yelena G. Bonner, had been hospitalized, apparently because of a hunger strike they started 13 days ago. Neither the two-sentence item circulated by Tass, the Soviet press agency, nor a slightly different version that appeared in Izvestia, the Government newspaper, said when the action was taken or whether the couple had consented. But the 26-year-old Moscow woman on whose behalf the hunger strike was declared, Yelizaveta Alekseyeva, told reporters here that she was convinced that the Sakharovs had been forcibly removed from their apartment in Gorky. She also said she feared that they were being force-fed.

The Avenue de la Paix offers no paradoxes. It is placid, clean, and sylvan. Not a leaf out of place, not a traffic jam in sight. If peace is order and stillness, then the avenue is well named. At the bottom of the street, by the base of a soft hill, sits the office building of the United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. At the top sits the Soviet Mission. They are about a twominute drive apart for negotiators taking part in the twice-weekly shuttle between the two buildings on the Avenue de la Paix.

After sparring over fine points for almost two years, Britain and Spain appear to be close to a breakthrough on one of Europe's oldest diplomatic disputes - the status of Gibraltar, which has been in British hands since 1704. According to diplomats in Madrid and officials here in the British colony, the Government of Prime Minister Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo plans next year to reopen the land frontier to Gibraltar, which was angrily shut by the Franco regime in 1969. While a firm date for the ending of the blockade has not been fixed, it seems likely that Spain will inform Britain of its timing before Prime Minister Calvo Sotelo pays an official visit to London on Jan. 8. A contracting company has already been engaged to erect a customs shed on the Spanish side of the Gibraltar isthmus.

Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger told Turkish leaders today that NATO would not accede to Greece's demands for ''guarantees'' against Turkey, according to United States Defense Department sources. Mr. Weinberger was said to have told Turkish officials that the Greek demand for guarantees was ''inconceivable'' because Turkey is not considered a threat to its neighbor. The Greek demand stems from Turkey's military intervention and occupation of northern Cyprus in 1974. Mr. Weinberger arrived here Thursday night for a three-day visit, which was widely interpreted here as a sign of Turkey's increased importance in NATO after threats by the Socialist Government in Greece to oust American bases and withdraw from NATO's military wing.