What was going on when I was born?

Marshall Field & Company said yesterday that it would accept a $310 million takeover offer from Batus Inc., a major retailer owned by B.A.T. Industries of London. Four years ago, the Chicago-based retailer rejected a much more generous offer from Carter Hawley Hale Stores Inc. The decision by Marshall Field's board to accept the Batus offer reflects the retailer's opposition to a rival bid from a group headed by Carl C. Icahn, the New York financier and arbitrageur. Mr. Icahn, whose group has accumulated 29.3 percent of Field's stock since January, said late yesterday that he was irate over the Batus offer. ''We are considering litigation against Field,'' he said in a telephone interview. ''They are disregarding the rights of shareholders and really dissuading other buyers from making an offer for the Field's stock.''

A tentative trend toward lower interest rates was aborted yesterday as four major banks raised their prime lending rates half a percentage point, to 16 1/2 percent, reversing a downward move they made March 8. As a result, the prime rate at all the nation's major banks now stands at the 16 1/2 percent level. The four big banks that announced they would return their prime to the 16 1/2 percent level were the Chase Manhattan Bank, the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company, the Bankers Trust Company and the First National Bank of Chicago.

''I can now inform you, dear comrades, that, striving to facilitate a just agreement on a major reduction of nuclear weapons by both sides in Europe, and desirous of setting a good example, the Soviet leadership has taken a decision to introduce, unilaterally, a moratorium on the development of medium-range nuclear armaments in the European part of the U.S.S.R.'' - Leonid I. Brezhnev, to convention of Soviet trade unions. (A6:1.)

BRION, one of the greatest wine estates of France, was down and out in 1933, along with much of the world economy. The vineyard had been ranked as a premier grand cru, or first great growth, in the Bordeaux classification of 1855, but the market for its celebrated wines had shrunk, and its proprietor had committed a tactical error. He had decided to bypass the Bordeaux wine trade and maximize profits by selling directly to stores and restaurants, eliminating the middlemen who traditionally marketed the best Bordeaux wines. Rumors circulated that the Haut-Brion vines had been afflicted with blight, that they were no longer capable of yielding the wines of extraordinary richness and finesse that had made the chateau famous. Critics began whispering that Haut-Brion no longer merited its premier cru status, that it should be demoted from the exalted company of Chateau Lafite-Rothschild, Chateau Latour and Chateau Margaux, the only other properties that received premier cru recognition in 1855. The proprietor, Andre Gibert, decided to give up. He offered Haut-Brion to the city of Bordeaux on the condition that the property be maintained in perpetuity. The city leaders, deciding that forever was too long, turned him down. So Haut-Brion, with a history dating back to 1509, a property that Thomas Jefferson described in 1787 as the best in all of France for pleasing the American palate, was thrown on the real-estate market.

Hundreds of Manhattan-bound passengers were trapped for more than an hour in a PATH train that caught fire under the Hudson River yesterday morning before rescuers led them to safety through an emergency exit at the riverbank edge of Greenwich Village. Eighty-four persons were treated for smoke inhalation and 19 of them were admitted to hospitals for observation. No serious injuries were reported.

Zimbabwe, which for years has depended on American, British and South African companies to market its mineral resources, is now on the verge of taking over responsibility for the sales itself. Parliament is expected to pass soon a controversial measure that would set up a Government marketing board to sell all of the country's 40 minerals except gold. Mineral sales account for more than 50 percent of the export earnings of this country, which has been under black rule for 21 months. In 1981 the minerals brought in more than $500 million of chronically short foreign currency.

''What he is talking about is a situation where, two-thirds of the way through a football game, one side is ahead 50 to 10, or 50 to 0, as it would be in this case, and they want to freeze the score for the rest of the game.

International A halt in deploying Soviet missiles in European Russia was announced by Leonid I. Brezhnev. In a Kremlin speech, the Soviet leader said that the freeze on the deployment of new medium-range nuclear weapons would continue until an arms-control agreement was reached with the United States or until NATO began installing new mediumrange nuclear missiles in Western Europe. (Page A1, Col. 6.) Washington dismissed the freeze in the deployment of Soviet nuclear missiles in Europe with unusual speed. The Reagan Administration derided the Kremlin's announcement as a ''propaganda gesture'' designed to leave the Soviet Union free to gain ''unchallenged hegemony over Europe.'' (A1:5.)

PEOPLE are discovering new ways to cut down on the fat in their meals these days without going to desperate lengths to make them palatable. Indeed, they are finding out that as far as taste is concerned, many low-fat foods can be as delicious as the richest and most buttery ones. The approach is adventurous, altering not only the choice of foods but even the way they are prepared. Instead of using butter in broiling fish and some meats, for example, Paula Wolfert uses creme fraiche that she makes from buttermilk, which is very low in fat. Julia Child suggests that vermouth can do wonderful things for a piece of chicken without adding fat. Many restaurants are following this lead, cooking with less butter, steaming or poaching instead of frying and serving salads with vinegar and olive oil instead of heavier dressings. Healthy people are not going to change their eating habits just because scientific research suggests that favorite dishes are bad for them. After all, eating well is one of the great pleasures of civilized life. But in the last few years a new attitude toward food has evolved in America. Meat and potatoes are no longer as hallowed as home and family. People are viewing food in an entirely different way. Besides cutting down on salt and sugar, they are eating much less fat - with good reason.

For 11 months, Ronald O. Simmat, inmate number 20197 in the Connecticut Correctional Institution here, has written a weekly column for a local newspaper. In the column, he has suggested ways the prison could raise money, and he tenderly recalled the 70-year-old woman who harbored him during his ''three-and-a-half-year vacation'' as a fugitive. He has also frequently assailed the warden, Carl Robinson. Now, Mr. Robinson and the Connecticut Department of Correction have ordered Mr. Simmat transferred to a Federal penitentiary in Wisconsin. The move would spare him, they contend, from the wrath of other inmates who have, from time to time, been subjects of his column.

Industrial production rose 1.6 percent in February after six consecutive months of progressively larger declines, the Federal Reserve Board reported. Economists said the increase reflects an easing in the unusually severe weather that depressed output in January. But it also indicates, they said, that the economy may be poised for recovery when interest rates start to fall. (Page A1.) Housing starts climbed 6.5 percent in February, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 953,000, the Commerce Department reported. The increase from January, the biggest of four consecutive monthly gains, was primarily in condominiums. Starts for new single-family units fell 10.9 percent, to an annual rate of 533,000. (D1.) Construction of new homes in the final quarter of 1981 slumped 42 percent from the comparable 1980 quarter. (D10.)

-------------------------------------------------------------------- James A. Michener's latest book is ''The Covenant.'' BY JAMES A. MICHENER ALTHOUGH I have written many books and ought to have developed a plan for doing so easily, I have never been able to write well without living in the place about which I was writing. This has meant that for much of my life I have had to operate two homes and that can become quite a chore. First, there is the simple problem that whenever you need something desperately it is always at the other place. This happens so invariably that one can frame Rule 1 for Double Living: Carefully judge where you will need something, then take it to the other place.