What was going on when I was born?

International Polish union leaders were accused by the authorities of calling for the overthrow of the Government. The Warsaw radio transmitted a tape recording made at a closed meeting of union leaders last Thursday in which Lech Walesa, the union chairman, asked for a ''confrontation'' and another labor leader urged the overthrow of the regime. Mr. Walesa confirmed in an interview that he had made his remarks but said they had been taken out of context. (Page A1, Column 2.) Possible measures against Libya were discussed by President Reagan and his top advisers. Such measures might include an embargo against the import of Libyan oil and a ban on travel by Americans to Libya. (A1:1.)

Anxiety about the future grows on the Rock of Gibraltar A2 Pol Pot group says it is disbanding its party organization A3 South Africa delayed reporting Angola raid A3 A pledge by Sakharov comes to light A3 Asian human rights group gets Ford Foundation grant A4 Israeli troops kill a Palestinian teen-ager in the Gaza Strip A6 Around the World A8 Greek Socialists and U.S. open high-level contacts A10 Greece's New Democracy Party ousts leader A12 Nicaragua says U.S. ''lies'' invite attack by neighbors A13 Government/Politics Concern's employees are tied to Rep. Richmond's fund-raising B1 Little agreement on policy as Governors end meeting B2 New York State and unions join to aid day-care centers B3 Washington Talk Briefing A24 Washington follow-up A24 Q&A with Arthur S. Flemming, head of civil rights agency A24 Leonore Annenberg talks about why she's leaving her job A24 Features/Notes Man in the News: John Edward Jacob, new Urban League head A18 Notes on People B21 Going Out Guide C9 Sports People D26 PARKING REGULATIONS Because of the Roman Catholic Feast of the Immaculate Conception, alternate-side parking is suspended today in New York City. All other regulations are in effect. Science Times Supernovas that may have started the solar system C1 Education: Emory confronts the pleasant problem of wealth C1 The Doctor's World: literary scientists C2 A restrained science policy for the National Laboratories C2 Science Watch C3 About education: Reading books that make reading boring C5 Science Q&A C5 General Around the Nation A18 T.V.A. analyzed at Vanderbilt U. seminar A19 Press Notes: Media lawyers warned on closed courtrooms A29 Top U.S. officials recall their whereabouts on fateful day B19 Arts/Entertainment Christopher Durang talks about his work C7 Speculum Musicae gives first of three concerts C8 ''Amidst the Gladiolas,'' a drama of Brooklyn, is staged C8 Thomas Mann biography by Richard Winston is reviewed C13 CBS-TV tells ''The Patricia Neal Story'' at 9 P.M. C21 Style Notes on Fashion B22 18th century sparks a gala fashion night B22 Obituaries Fred Feldkamp, movie producer, editor and writer D31 Sports Giants' Taylor uses linebacker skills to create havoc D26 Kuhn rules out a split season D27 Guidry gets three offers D27 Bradshaw hurt as Raiders win D27 Rockies eye move to Meadowlands D27 Antuofermo ends boxing career D27 Jets' Michael stresses positive in belittling Browns jinx D28 B15 Dave Anderson says Ivy League grows in stature D29 News Analysis Marvine Howe examines the new, closer U.S.-Turkey relationship A9 Editorials/Letters/Op-Ed Editorials A30 The biggest ''private'' project Talking about terrorism Rep. Richmond's pension Church, state and a submarine Letters A30 Sydney H. Schanberg: Freud and La Guardia A31 Tom Wicker: a Governor's di- lemma A31 Robert I. Rotberg: Zimbabwe needs aid A31 Jeffrey Good: the value-added tax - no fiscal cure-all A31

The Market Place column in Business Day yesterday incorrectly reported the status of the five plants in the Washington Public Power System. None are producing power, but the first three are near completion while Plants 4 and 5 are less than 50 percent constructed.

AT a time when many higher education institutions around the country are scrambling for funds to maintain the status quo, Emory University has a highly unusual problem: how to spend the income on a $105 million bequest designed to transform the university in fundamental ways. It is, acknowledges James T. Laney, the 53-year old theologianeconomist who is president of Emory, a nice kind of problem to have. It is also one that is forcing Emory to do some hard thinking, not only about its own identity but about the nature of higher education today. ''The temptation is to try to duplicate Ivy League institutions across the board,'' Dr. Laney said. ''But the demands would be insatiable. You have to figure out what you can do exceedingly well that others are not doing.''

The Reagan Administration, in an effort to defuse a growing conflict over steel trade with the European Common Market, will seek a commitment from the Europeans to stop shipping subsidized, cut-rate steel to the United States but will not be asking for quantitative export restraints by the Europeans. These points were made in a statement issued today by the White House press office and by the Secretary of Commerce, Malcolm Baldrige, during an interview in advance of conversations that he and three other Cabinet officers will hold with officials of the European Commission, the Common Market's governing body, in Brussels on Friday. Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr., Secretary of Agriculture John R. Block and Bill Brock, the United States trade representative, will join Mr. Baldrige in the meetings, which are aimed at halting a deterioration in Atlantic trade relations. Filing of Complaints Delayed After a session with President Reagan last Friday American steel industry executives agreed to delay filing antidumping and antisubsidy complaints against the Europeans to await the outcome of the Brussels meeting.

Letters and notes from Federal court files give details of how Representative Frederick W. Richmond of Brooklyn used employees of the manufacturing company he founded and controlled to handle some of his political fund-raising. Mr. Richmond, a Democrat, has acknowledged that the employees did political work for him, although he contends that it was done on their own time. That contention was rejected by a Federal judge in St. Louis, who concluded that Mr. Richmond used the employees ''during regular working hours to further his political career.'' The judge, H. Kenneth Wangelin of Federal District Court, issued his ruling in a takeover battle involving the company, Walco National Corporation of New York. The papers concerning the employees' activities were part of the evidence on which he based his ruling.

Cynthia Boston, who was cleared of complicity in the Brink's armored-car robbery and shootout in Rockland County on Oct. 20, was jailed yesterday for refusing to cooperate with a Federal grand jury. Judge Lee P. Gagliardi of Federal District Court in Manhattan held the 33-year-old Miss Boston in contempt of court and ordered her remanded to the Metropolitan Correctional Center. The sentence is indeterminate and could last up to the duration of the grand jury or an 18-month maximum if she continues to refuse to testify or to provide handwriting and hair samples.

''When we are dealing with a question of rights that run back to the Constitution, you don't decide to implement them or not implement them on the basis of how popular they are at a particular time.'' - Arthur S. Flemming, chairman, United States Commission on Civil Rights. (A24:4.)

A New York City Transit Authority superintendent was indicted yesterday on Federal charges of accepting benefits valued at more than $30,000 from 12 companies involved in a Pullman contract to produce subway cars. In addition, law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation said six present and former Transit Authority officials would be charged today by the Brooklyn District Attorney's office with similar misdemeanor violations of state law arising from the same investigation that led to the Federal indictment. Among the six, the officials said, are John deRoos, the former head of the Transit Authority, and Edwin H. Weidman, who recently resigned as superintendent of car maintenance. The transit superintendent who was indicted by a Federal grand jury in Brooklyn yesterday is Edward O'Grady, who formerly headed the authority's new-car engineering division. . The authority's fleet of 754 R-46 cars, which were found to be defective, was the subject of a lawsuit brought by the city against Pullman Inc. and the Rockwell International Corporation. Rockwell produced the undercarriages of the cars, which developed serious cracks.

ON a shallow coral reef in a relatively little-known group in the Bahama chain called the Turks and Caicos Islands, lies a shipwreck that many now believe could be that of the Pinta, one of the three ships that sailed with Columbus in 1492. But in the heated jockeying for the rights to the wreck among several groups of scientists and treasure hunters, it appears the historical value of the wreck itself may now be threatened because the location of the site has become widely known in recent weeks. Archeologists express the concern that local amateur treasure hunters may descend on the wreck and damage or pillage it with the hope of quick profit. Meanwhile, the battling among the professionals as each has tried to get exclusive permission to explore the wreck has contributed to lengthy delays. ''All I want to do is get in the water and salvage the ship. I can't believe this is happening,'' said John Gasque who laid early claim to the wreck.

Flushing, Queens, isn't a spot that one normally thinks of as exotic, but Oriental food shops and Korean restaurants are sprouting there among the diners and the delis like cloud mushrooms after a heavy rain. Flushing and another Queens neighborhood, Kew Gardens, have the heaviest concentrations of Koreans in New York City - community leaders put the number at 20,000. And in a city where, according to the latest census, 110,000 Koreans live, there is scarcely a neighborhood that does not now have a Korean greengrocer or fishmonger or dry cleaner. The Koreans are among the city's most visible immigrants because of their remarkable emergence in small businesses. For these 110,000 people, their dreams and difficulties are part of the old, old story of immigrants to the United States.

IT was from the primordial ''big bang'' that the universe is thought to have been born. But that cosmic explosion, 10 or 20 billion years ago, produced only the lightest elements - hydrogen and helium. Where did everything else - the remaining elements as well as the stars and planets of which they are formed - come from? Astronomers believe that the other elements were brewed by fusion reactions within stars and by successive explosions of giant stars. Such ''supernovas'' are the most destructive events that can be directly observed. Yet shock waves from such cataclysms are thought to have initiated formations of the myriad suns, planets and moons comprising the universe.