What was going on when I was born?

The United States Synthetic Fuels Corporation, which expects to have $14.8 billion available by June to aid sponsors of development projects, today identified 27 applicants from among whom the first recipients of funds would be selected. The 27, whose projects are situated in 14 states, are those that responded by the Jan.4 deadline to requests by the Governmentsponsored corporation for additional information. Since 63 applications had originally been filed, this suggested that sponsors of 36 either were not yet prepared to carry through their plans or had decided to abandon them. The projects are heavily concentrated in the West.

Chief Justice Warren E. Burger refused today to block the United States Steel Corporation's acquisition of the Marathon Oil Company. His ruling cleared the way for the $6.2 billion purchase to go forward. Time and legal options ran out for the Mobil Corporation shortly before 5 P.M., when the Chief Justice issued a two-sentence order denying Mobil's request to delay the purchase. Mobil wanted time to seek a Supreme Court review of lower-court antitr ust rulings that have blocked its own $6.5 billion bid for Marathon. While Mobil had the nominal right to seek relief from another Supreme Court Justice, the Chief Justice's statement made clear that the effort would be fruitless in the few hours remaining before a midnight deadline, when U.S. Steel's right to purchase control of Marathon became irrevocable.

The following dispatch is based on information arriving from Poland. Two senior Solidarity leaders who have evaded arrest by Poland's martial law authorities have urged workers to engage in clandestine resistance to the regime. One of the leaders, Zbigniew Janas, called for the formation of underground strike committees and the preparation of a nationwide shutdown. The other, Wladyslaw Frasyniuk, said the Solidarity union movement was alive despite the arrest of many of its leaders. They made their remarks in letters to supporters of the union.

Because of an editing error, an arti- cle last Sunday incorrectly described the production of The International Herald Tribune. It is edited in Paris and printed in Paris, London, Zurich and Hong Kong.

Plans to demolish two theaters to make way for construction of the Portman hotel in the Times Square area were temporarily blocked yesterday by a Federal appeals court. The court acted pending the outcome of accusations that improper political influence had been used to approve the demolition. The appeals court ruled in Manhattan that demolition of the theaters, the Morosco and the Helen Hayes, must be delayed until a Federal District Court resolved the dispute.

THE awful truth of interior design these days is that many people would prefer a subtly patterned carpet underfoot, a plump three-cushion damask sofa (with arms), and a restful pattern on the walls any day of the week, rather than a room that seems fixed forever in bare, minimalist whiteness. The design subtext concealed in a high-gloss, empty wall, or in the flat blankness of industrial carpeting, is one, frankly, that escapes many. Fortunately, ornamentation in general, and the use of patterned fabrics specifically, seem to be on the way back. As John Barrington Bayley, an architect, said in his introduction to the 1978 reprinting of Edith Wharton's 1902 ''The Decoration of Houses,'' ''We have been on a starvation diet as to ornament for a good long time,'' but now ''a strong reaction - the swing of the pendulum - for ornament is upon us.'' That pendulum is already moving in architecture, with the postmodernist's penchant for neoclassical design motifs.

Governor Carey opened the 205th session of the Legislature today with a call for drastic and potentially expensive changes in the way New York State finances education, health care for the poor and its crumbling system of roads and bridges. The Governor's chief aides acknowledged in a briefing after Mr. Carey's State of the State Message that the am- Excerpts from message, page B6. bitious programs in c ertain areas would require major reductions in other state s ervices and increases in state revenue - including, theysaid, the pos sibility of new taxes. The aides ruled out income-tax increases but said that fees and taxes tied to specific services might have to be raised. Mr. Carey criticized what he called the ''callous, calculated disregard by the Federal Government of its obligations to this state and this region.'' Cites an 'Undoing' of Dreams ''In the winter of 1982,'' Mr. Carey said, ''the elderly fear for their security, workers for their jobs, parents for their families, the young for their future.'' Mr. Carey said these Americans faced ''the slow undoing of their dreams'' because of Federal budget actions.

President Reagan is being called on to arbitrate a sharp dispute between the Administration's trade officers and budget cutters over future funding levels for the Export-Import Bank, Administration sources reported today. A tentative decision has already been made, the sources said, to cut direct lending authority to $3.7 billion for the fiscal year 1983, compared with the $4.4 billion approved by Congress in the final 1982 appropriation bill. But with a final determination yet to be made by President Reagan, a heated batt le has broken out between the budget cutters, led by David A. Stoc kman, director of the Office of Management and Budget, and those see king a more active role for the bank to meet growing foreign gover nment competition in export financing. The latter group, pointing to the job creation effects of exports, is led by Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige and Bill Brock, the United States trade representative.

A long and sometimes acrimonious dispute ended yesterday when New York City agreed to continue housing state prisoners temporarily and the state agreed to pay for such housing when the inmates' stays exceeded 48 hours after processing. By the time the accord expires on March 1, the state expects to be able to accommodate 1,300 more prisoners in its own facilities. In a protracted battle before a Federal judge, the city had argued that state prisoners were exacerbating already crowded conditions in city jails. The state had insisted that it was obliged to house its inmates in city jails until it had built more prison space of its own.

Increases in taxes on consumer items are being urged by President Reagan's economic advisers as part of a strategy to bring budget deficits well below $100 billion in the next few years, officials reported. The advisers' common position represents a shift by Treasury Secretary Regan. The Secretary, meanwhile, voiced disagreement with the prediction by Henry Kaufman, the Wall Street economist, that interest rates would climb in the second half of 1982. (Page A1.) The average interest rate charged for new home loans has fallen to 17.54 percent. (D9.) Expanded powers enabling thrift institutions and commercial banks to pump more money into the home mortgage market were recommended by a Presidential commission. It said the thrift institutions should be allowed to accept demand deposits, make consumer loans and invest in municipal bonds as well as real estate loans. (D1.)

The man identified by the Government as the supervisor of a terrorist training project in Libya has told Federal prosecutors that the operation was endorsed and put to use by two senior officials at the Central Intelligence Agency when it began in 1976. Douglas M. Schlachter, the man said to have been the supervisor, was at one time a business associate of Edwin P. Wilson, a former American intelligence agent who has been accused of organizing the Libyan operation. Mr. Schlachter's lawyer said today that his client had told prosecutors he briefed two high-ranking Central Intelligence officials about Mr. Wilson's activities at meetings in the Washington area in 1976 and 1977. The lawyer, Alvin C. Askew, said that the two officials had told Mr. Schlachter to carry out intelligence missions in Libya, among them trying to obtain Soviet military equipment. Lawyer Cites Documents ''There is tangible evidence, including documents bearing the signatures of senior C.I.A. officials, showing that my client reported to, and received instructions from, agency officials,'' Mr. Askew said.

''In the winter of 1982, the elderly fear for their security, workers for their jobs, parents for their families, the young for their future.'' - Governor Carey. (A1:6.)