What was going on when I was born?

An article in Metropolitan Report yesterday incorrectly identified the most recent Mayor of New York City to have become Governor. He was John T. Hoffman, in 1868.

The nation's governors told President Reagan today that they wanted a different and smaller swap of responsibilities than he outlined last month under the banner of ''new federalism.'' Mr. Reagan expressed a willingness to negotiate, according to Presidential aides and several Governors present at the White House meeting. The Governors told Mr. Reagan they would accept one element of his proposal, a full Federal takeover of Medicaid but would reject state assumption of food stamps and welfare in exchange. However, the language of a position paper they adopted tentatively this morning encouraged Administration officials to believe they might change their minds. They said they would be willing to take up another batch of Federal programs so that the financial balance was about the same as under Mr. Reagan's proposal. Gov. Richard A. Snelling, a Vermont Republican and chairman of the National Governors Association, said later that the governors had told Mr. Reagan they understood that ''we must take over the responsibility for comparably costly programs.''

The Pabst Brewing Company said yesterday that it had received an ''unsolicited'' cash merger proposal from an investment banking firm representing C. Schmidt & Sons Inc., a Philadelphia brewer. Analysts said Pabst was almost certain to reject the offer. In a brief statement issued late yesterday, Pabst said Schmidt proposed to buy its 8.18 million outstanding shares for $16 a share, or a total of $131 million. Paul Markovina, Pabst's spokesman, said that the Schmidt offer would be presented to the Pabst board today at its regularly scheduled meeting in Milwaukee. Pabst would have no further comment beyond that, he said.

Interest rates fell sharply yesterday, extending the declines that began late Friday following news of a larger-than-expected drop in the nation's basic money supply. Government securities dealers said that a drop in overnight interest rates to about 13 3/4 percent yesterday, combined with the lower money supply, had alleviated traders' fears that the Federal Reserve would tighten monetary policy and push up rates. However, they said that the price gains so far have resulted from buying by speculators, many of whom were heavy sellers earlier, with little activity by large institional investors. ''The institutional buyer wants to see more than just one week's good money supply numbers,'' commented George Hester, a vice president in the government securities division of Blyth Eastman Paine Webber Inc.

Transcript of Koch announcement of candidacy, page B4. By FRANK LYNN Mayor Koch, formally announcing his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for governor yesterday, declared, ''I will be fair, decide issues on the merits and be the governor of all the people.'' The 57-year-old Mayor's announcement at Gracie Mansion ended 28 days of public speculation over whether he would recant previous pledges not to run for any office but mayor. Speaking at a crowded news conference, the Mayor said several times that he would be a fair governor, as he addressed what he expects to be a leading campaign issue - that, as governor, he would be overly partial to the city.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. THE question could not be more intellectually challenging: What was the origin of life on earth? Nowhere is the question being asked with more optimism that it just might be answerable, than in the laboratory and mind of Dr. Cyril Ponnamperuma here at the University of Maryland. In search of answers, Dr. Ponnamperuma and other origin-of-life scientists cook up primordial soups, manipulate molecules, dissect ancient rocks and search the other planets and interstellar space for clues. They have recently upset some textbook notions of what the world was like in the beginning of life; for example, the atmosphere may have been richer in carbon dioxide than hydrogen, which would completely alter the formula for the chemical evolution of life. But whether there was more hydrogen or more carbon dioxide, life presumably could have emerged and then somehow evolved in complexity until, now, it is possible to look back and ponder that far-ago beginning. Much of what these scientists are doing would have been inconceivable a few years ago, before the explosion of knowledge in astrophysics, micropaleontology and biochemistry. Dr. Ponnamperuma's laboratory, for example, is following a once unthinkable line of inquiry to see whether, to put it one way, God is left-handed.

For the third time in less than three weeks, Iran yesterday undercut further the official oil price set by OPEC, according to buyers of Iranian crude. The cuts were seen as an open breach of OPEC discipline. Yesterday's cut, of $2 a barrel, was disclosed in telex messages sent to buyers, and brought Iran's basic price to $30.20, the buyers said. Iran's total price cut this month comes to $4 for a 42-gallon barrel. Since Iran's oil exports are far below normal and play only a small role in world markets, the effect on consumers will be slight.

Federal agents said yesterday that they had seized 115 1/2 pounds of heroin that had been smuggled into the United States from Italy in elaborate espresso machines. They estimated the street value of the drug to be $70 million. William von Raab, the Commissioner of the United States Customs Service, who announced the seizure, said that it was ''probably the most important heroin seizure since the days of the French Connection.'' He said it was the largest shipment intercepted in New York in seven and a half years.

The American economy was not so weak during 1981's last quarter as previously announced, the Commerce Department reported today. It said the gross national product declined at an annual rate of 4.7 percent instead of the 5.2 percent announced last month. The Commerce Department also said that inflation - as measured by the G.N.P.-linked implicit price deflator - rose at an annual rate of 9.3 percent in the quarter rather than the 8.4 percent originally reported. The deflator has shown more inflation acceleration than other measures that are not as broad, including the widely watched Consumer Price Index, which rose at an annual rate of 5.3 percent in December.

music radio station in the country, is switching to a format of talk programs and news. Battered by low ratings and the loss of its once-vast teen-age audience to FM stereo stations, WABC is doing what has been done by all but one of the AM stations owned by the American Broadcasting Companies. The end of WABC as a purveyor of the so-called Top 40 formula has broad implications. It represents, according to broadcast specialists, the recognition that AM broacasting cannot compete with the more technically advanced FM broadcasting in the reproduction of music.

An article Saturday on the tentative contract agreement between the Ford Motor Company and the United Automobile Workers misstated a provision of the agreement. Workers would continue to receive cost-of-living payments, but increases in that category, based on the Consumer Price Index, would be deferred for nine months.

The National Blank Book Company used to make a handsome living producing bound ledgers for office accounting records. Today, as a division of Dennison Manufacturing Inc., National's peak ledger sales have been surpassed by its sales of data binders for computer printouts. National's experience is cited by Nelson S. Gifford, Dennison's president and chief executive, as one example of why the rise of electronics in the nation's offices has not touched off strategic panic here at the headquarters of the 138-year-old company that, for most of its history, has been a leader in various office products and stationery markets. ''We have obviously looked at the 'Office of the Future' with some concern,'' said John Gray, the executive vice president who is Dennison's second in command, referring to the widely publicized vision of the Xerox Corporation and other makers of large office equipment of offices where a wide range of activities are tied into a single electronic information handling network. ''We see a slow evolution away from things like gum labels and file folders, but we don't see a drastic falloff in any of our products. And there are large new markets for products like word processing supplies.''