What was going on when I was born?

Federal and city law-enforcement officials yesterday questioned dozens of possible witnesses and sifted large caches of drugs, weapons and money in a widening investigation of the execution-style murders of a Colombian couple and their two infant children in Queens on Saturday. While agents of the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration pursued aspects of the inquiry in Colombia, scores of homicide and narcotics detectives focused the main investigation in Queens at the roadside scene of the slayings and at the victims' apartment, where $15 million worth of cocaine, $1 million in cash and an arsenal of weapons were found. The police said the slayings appeared to be related to a flourishing traffic in cocaine from Colombia. But positive identification of the victims had not been ma de, and the authorities were unable to say whether the couple might b e linked to any known drug ring or to mounting violence in the coca ine traffic in Queens inrecent months.

International P oles fought with the police in Gdansk in vio lent clashes in which more than 200 people were arrested and 14 inj ured, the Warsaw radio said. The fighting broke out despite official appeals for calm on theeve of new food price increases. The governin g military council ordered a stricter curfew in Gdansk aimed at clearing the streets from 10 P.M. to 5 A.M. It also suspended all public entertainment andsports and banned private cars from the roads . (Page A1, Column 6.) U.S. military aid to Egypt and Israel would be increased by the Reagan Administration. Congress will be asked to increase Egypt's allotment by $400 million and Israel's by $300 million in the next fiscal year, Administration and diplomatic sources said. (A1:4.)

The lights gleamed on Richard M. Rosenbaum at the Republican Party's 1976 national convention, where he was the focus of conservative hostility. He was Nelson A. Rockefeller's New York State party chairman - personally picked - a leader in the successful fight to deny the party's Presidential nomination to Ronald Reagan. Today, with his credentials recertified as a loyal member of President Reagan's party, Mr. Rosenbaum will step in front of the lights again and announce his candidacy for Governor. In 1980 he was one of those who seconded Mr. Reagan's nomination, and he helped the Reagan campaign appeal to the state's sizable Jewish population.

''I'm not going to be a designated assassin who just comes off the bench to fight.'' - Paul Mulvey, Los Angeles Kings player who refused to enter a hockey brawl as ordered by coach. (C1:1.)

The nation's sagging economy, high interest rates, and a strong dollar depressed earnings for a broad range of American companies during the fourth quarter of 1981, according to year-end reports issued so far. The cyclical industries - steel, forest products, housing, autos, and airlines - were the hardest hit, while companies in the energy, chemical, brokerage, and electronic equipment fields saw their growth sharply reduced. The only consistent improvement seemed to be in the banking sector and in such uncyclical industries as tobacco and food products. ''The fourth-quarter numbers are describing a typical, but severe, price-cost-volume squeeze,'' said Lacy H. Hunt, economist and executive vice president of Fidelity Bank. For many companies, fixed costs rose more rapidly than prices while sales volumes declined - causing wide swings in profits.

The Soviet Union, in a strong indication that it faces a shortage of hard currency reserves, has asked several West German and Japanese companies in recent weeks for permission to stretch out payments for goods that have already been shipped, it was reported today. A West German industry official responsible for trade dealings with Eastern Europe, who requested anonymity, said that a growing number of requests had been registered in recent weeks from Russia and other Eastern European countries. The Soviet Union is understood to have asked German steel, textile and clothing manufacturers to extend the periods allowed for payment from the current 30 or 90 days to 180 days.

Israel agreed today to accept military units of four European countries in a Sinai peacekeeping force. The decision by the Cabinet ended weeks of debate over the terms under which Britain, France, Italy and the Netherlands would participate. It also marked a successful diplomatic effort by the United States to create a broadly based force outside United Nations auspices. The 2,500-member force, including naval, infantry and helicopter units, is being created under the Camp David accords and the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty to insure the continued demilitarization of Sinai after Israel completes its withdrawal April 25.

A week ago, Paul Mulvey, a journeyman forward for the Los Angeles Kings, refused his coach's order to leave the bench and get into a general fight between the Kings and the Vancouver Canucks. The coach, Don Perry, told Mulvey not to put on a Kings uniform again, not even to practice, and today Mulvey said his refusal to fight may have ended his career in the National Hockey League. ''I'm not going to be a designated assassin who just comes off the bench to fight,'' Mulvey said today as he sat by a swimming pool while his teammates were at practice, preparing to play the Rangers at the Forum. ''If that's the only thing I can do in the N.H.L., go out and fight, then maybe my career is over. Maybe it's time for me to get out.''

New Federal budget cuts expected to be announced next Monday have raised the possibility that New York's 75-cent subway and bus fare may be raised a nickel or more by this summer, transit officials said yesterday. There may also be increases in commuter fares on the Long Island Rail Road and the section of Conrail operated by the M.T.A., the officials added. When the New York City fare went to 75 cents last July and there were comparable increases in commuter rail fares, state officials said they hoped to hold the line until 1983. This was because of a $301 million state tax package worked out in Albany, they said, and because cuts in the Federal budget were not expected to be severe for large city transit systems for two years.

By sixth grade, Andrew J. Connolly knew he wanted to attend the United States Coast Guard Academy here. He grew up imagining the Coast Guard band performing, the cutters sliding down the Thames River on training maneuvers and the cadets marching in procession. Mr. Connolly made good on his dream, having been selected the first member of the academy's class of 1986. But when he is sworn in June 28 he will find that the band has been halved and moved to Washington, two training cutters have been decommissioned and the processions will be smaller by about 250 cadets. Some military instructors may be returned to sea, maintenance of the scenic hilltop campus will be reduced, 100 cadets will be ''disenrolled'' and the freshman class will be cut by about 150.

This year there is a special incentive to get out pencil and calculator and figure one's taxes early. Because of the 1981 tax law, as well as legislation that was passed in 1980, many people will owe less Federal income tax than before. Many may wind up with refunds, instead of owing money to the Government on April 15. The newest legislation, the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, provides for a dramatic cut in income tax rates over a four-year period. The first phase, which took effect Oct. 1, reduced individual tax rates by 5 percent across the board. This reduction for the final quarter of 1981 has been translated into a tax credit of 1.25 percent that is built into the tax tables accompanying one's return for the whole year. The result will be modest, trimming taxes by only a few hundred dollars, at most, for people in the upper brackets. Take the case of a married couple filing jointly, with two children and taxable income of $40,000 in both 1980 and 1981. This time their Federal tax bill would be $10,109, or $117 less than the previous year, according to the accounting firm of Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. If the family had $75,000 of taxable income in both years, they would owe $26,932 for 1981, or $246 less than the year before.

The Reagan Administration moved today to ease tensions with the Federal Reserve Board over the conduct of monetary policy when two Cabinet officers praised Fed actions as having contributed to cutting the inflation rate by a quarter last year. Treasury Secretary Donald T. Regan said that Paul A. Volcker, Federal Reserve Board chairman, should definitely ''stay on'' as chief architect of the nation's monetary policy. He also insisted that there was no intent by the Reagan Administration to make the Fed the ''scapegoat'' for disappointments in the nation's economic recovery rate. Both Secretary Regan and David A. Stockman, the budget director, stated during separate television interview programs that there was no disagreement with the independent central bank over its targets for gradually reducing the growth in money supply.