What was going on when I was born?

International A crackdown in Guatemala one day after a coup surprised many people who had expected the new military leaders to form an interim government with civilian politicians and to set speedy elections. The junta of three senior military officers who seized power Tuesday suspended the Constitution and all political activities. (Page A1, Column 6.) Abuses by Salvadoran security forces appear to be diminishing a bit, but many of the traditional excesses are continuing. Much of the international opposition to the ruling junta arises from its general failure to curb the killing of noncombatants by security forces and the paramilitary death squads linked with them. (A1:4-5.)

The United States Supreme Court ruled unanimously today that employees of the state-owned Long Island Rail Road have a Federally guaranteed right to strike. In an opinion by Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, the Court ruled that the railroad's employees retained their rights under Federal labor law when New York acquired the L.I.R.R. in 1966, despite the terms of the state's Taylor Law forbidding strikes by public employees. In another decision, the Court declared unconstitutional the New York law that permits the state to remove children permanently from the custody of abusive or neglectful parents. (Page A27.)

A news analysis article yesterday, discussing the issue of the authenticity of the painting ''The Fortune Teller,'' omitted a word from a statement by John Brealey of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, explaining that the museum had invited CBS News to see the painting. The quotation should have read, ''The test results could not be meaningfully evaluated without simultaneous first-hand examination of the painting itself.''

''Whoever is elected has a responsibility to democracy. Those who come to power and forget the people make a mistake.

WHEN Susan Trentacoste Miller, a New York freelance photographer, decided to document her family's history, she didn't compile an album of pictures. Instead, Mrs. Miller, her parents, sister and uncle spent four hours relating their memories to a videotape camera. ''It's impossible to capture my parents' personalities without the sound and animation of tape,'' she said. Bob and Irma Maurer of Mission Viejo, Calif., hired a video recording service for their daughter Lori's wedding in August 1980. The tape included scenes of her bridal shower, a wedding-dress fitting and an aerial view of the church where the ceremony took place. Since then, the Maurers have used the same company to capture a son's wedding, a younger son's football match, a second daughter's school dance recital and the 65th birthday party for Mr. Maurer's father.

Two police officers were wounded yesterday in Queens when a door swung open on a garage where they were investigating a burglary and a shotgun was fired at them from the dim interior. As the policemen fell, three youths ran past them and scattered through the neighborhood of small homes on the western edge of Flushing Meadow Park. Two of the youths broke into a home a few blocks away where the police found one, still clutching the loaded shotgun, in a bedroom closet and the other cowering under a bed. The third was arrested in the street. One of the police officers took the full impact of the shotgun blast directly in the chest but was saved by his bulletproof vest. The other, a newly promoted sergeant on his first day of patrol in the 110th Precinct, was wounded in the side.

Designers, manufacturers and furniture buyers from all over the United States as well as Europe thronged to West Week 1982, the area's most important contract and residential furniture and accessories market, held last weekend in the Pacific Design Center. The center is known affectionately as the Blue Whale because of its large size (750,000 square feet) and blue insulated glass skin. Its spacious halls were crowded and the mood was one of friendly rivalry between the indigenous California companies and the major East Coast and European concerns that have showrooms in the building. The show, held Friday through Sunday, was also sparked by the presence of such well-known furniture designers as George Nelson from New York, Mario Bellini from Milan and Rodney Kinsman from London. ''It's a lot less laid back here than I expected,'' Mr. Kinsman said. ''I think we're a great deal more so in Europe.''

Representative Frederick W. Richmond of Brooklyn intervened with the Massachusetts Correction Commissioner on behalf of a prisoner who later escaped, according to new accounts by Massachusetts officials. In a matter under investigation by a Federal grand jury, Mr. Richmond has said publicly that he helped the man obtain a clerical job in the House of Representatives last year. Mr. Richmond has repeatedly refused to say whether he knew that the man was a fugitive at the time. The convict was a former employee of the Congressman who was serving up to 18 years in prison for assault with intent to kill. Now a former Massachusetts Correction Commissioner, William T. Hogan Jr., has disclosed that three months before the escape, Mr. Richmond personally telephoned him to win a review of the prisoner's placement in Walpole Prison, a maximum-security facility.

The recent celebration of the ''Night of 100 Stars,'' which marked the 100th anniversary of the Actors' Fund of America, was a happy occasion at the fund's retirement home here. The elderly residents turned out in their best dress for a party of champagne and canapes to watch their more celebrated colleagues on the three-hour television gala. The show was put on to raise money to build a nursing home for the residents and other aging and ailing members of the theatrical world. Much of the euphoria of that party is gone, however. Plans for the nursing home are mired in neighborhood opposition, and the elderly and needy people who would live at the home now look at the future with unease and uncertainty.

A record increase in revenues of $361.5 million a year - 9.4 percent -was approved for the New York Telephone Company yesterday by the Public Service Commission. Charges for equipment were raised, but the cost of some calls in the metropolitan area was reduced. The new increases could start April 4 if the paperwork is completed in time. The full effect on the 6.3 million customers in the state was not yet available. But there will be a $45 million reduction for the 4.4 million customers in New York City, Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester and Rockland Counties for calls outside a local exchange but short of long-distance.

Suffolk and Nassau Counties joined the North Shore Long Island Town of Huntington yesterday in filing a suit in Federal court that seeks to bar the dumping of mud and silt dredged from harbors into eastern Long Island Sound. The dumping began last weekend at a controversial new site opened by the Army Corp of Engineers a few miles off Huntington's shores near prime lobster and shellfish grounds. It has touched off opposition on both sides of the 100-mile-long waterway. Norwalk and the Connecticut Commercial Fishermen's Association, among others, have expressed interest in joining the suit, ''marking an important turn of events,'' according to Kenneth C. Butterfield, Supervisor of the 330-year-old Town of Huntington. The town has led the battle against what it calls ''using the Sound as a garbage dump.''

Some leading Republicans are encouraging Paul J. Curran, the former United States Attorney, to enter the New York State gubernatorial race to head off the increasingly likely nomination of Lewis E. Lehrman, a wealthy businessman. Mr. Lehrman, who is supported by Conservative Party leaders, has had little backing among Republican officials. But he made his first substantial inroad into the party's organization ranks yesterday when he was endorsed by the Suffolk Republican leader, Anthony J. Prudenti, and the Suffolk County Executive, Peter F. Cohalan. Mr. Cohalan had been a ''favorite son'' candidate for Governor.