What was going on when I was born?

What is believed to be the first row of townhouses built in Manhattan since the turn of the century is rapidly nearing completion on East 67th Street between Second and Third Avenues. There, 11 one-family houses that will sell for several million dollars each when they go on sale next summer are being built by Sheldon Solow.

The magicians, dancers, jugglers and acrobats of the Chinese Magic Circus of Taiwan will perform tomorrow at the State Theater in New Brunswick. The circus is on a 15-week tour of the United States, but tomorrow's performance, which begins at 7:30 P.M., will be the 18-member troupe's only appearance in New Jersey. ''This is an authentic Chinese troupe; only two or three speak English,'' said Eric Krebs, producing director of the George Street Playhouse, also in New Brunswick. The circus's roots are deep in Chinese culture, with most of the acts dating back 2,000 years. On a visit to the United States in 1978, the Chinese Magic Circus appeared at Madison Square Garden's Felt Forum.

At the Lamplighter School, a private elementary school in Dallas, a 5-year-old was recently overheard speaking disparagingly of a fellow student: ''Jonathan is already 4, and he can't do the computer.'' At Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, beginning five years from now, every student will be given a computer for personal and academic use. Computers are becoming a familiar part of classroom life for students of all ages, challenging educators to re-examine some cherished ideas about what to teach, and when, and how. Computers are making it possible for third graders and fourth graders to work with elementary concepts of geometry several years earlier than usual. Some colleges are beginning to add such requirements as ''computer literacy.'' The technology has also resulted in traditional concepts of authority being called into question because students often know more than their teachers about computer-related problems.

For 150 years, London was more amused than interested when Buenos Aires heatedly and repeatedly asserted sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, 5,000 square miles of rocky, wind-blown South Atlantic sheep pasture with possible oilfields off-shore. Last week, Argentina finally got Britain's attention. It sent 4,000 troops to seize the 200 islands (population 1,800 humans and 700,000 mostly absentee-owned sheep) which Britain had ruled since ousting an Argentine garrison in 1833. In brief fighting with 80 defending British marines, an Argentine officer was killed. Argentine newspapers reported continuing scattered resistance by the islanders.

What has happened to the independent producer? The League of New York Theaters and Producers has about twice as many members now as 10 years ago, but this may suggest only that the passion to produce burns as brightly as ever, and not that producing is less hazardous or more fun. It costs far more to produce than it ever did, and because of the risks there is a new route that producers must take to bring a show to Broadway. It begins in the regional theaters or Off Broadway; it winds through agents' offices; it is trod by producers in droves. It has to do with money. ''I hate it when the press ridicules the number of producers who are involved in a single play,'' the independent producer Emanuel Azenberg says. ''There are more producers because it takes more to raise the money.'' ''I remember Lillian Hellman telling me that 'The Children's Hour' cost $10,000 to produce,'' Lester Osterman, another independent producer, says. ''Now it would cost $700,000. You just can't raise that money among a few friends.''

WHITE PLAINS SOLID electoral victories for two energy-related referendums last week have cleared the way for county negotiations with Consolidated Edison over distribution of inexpensive power and caused a New Hampshire company to expect to break ground soon in Peekskill. By about 5 to 1, voters approved creation of a county agency to compete for cheap upstate hydropower, and County Executive Alfred B. DelBello explained at a midweek news conference what happens next on the road to lower Con Edison bills. Within ''a week or 10 days,'' he said, his administration would draft legislation setting up the agency. He said it should be ''small, quasi-independent'' and able ''to make long-term commitments.''

Remember back in January and February, when the world was locked in an icy embrace and householders and operators of residential property were quaking before the prospect of huge fuel oil bills? Well, spring is now here, the worst of the heating season is over, and the National Weather Service has some warm good news: the winter wasn't all that cold.

SAN SALVADOR THAT so many Salvadorans voted last Sunday, often at personal risk, was ''a clear indication of a war weariness and a desire for a quick and peaceful solution to the war,'' a university professor here said. That was the most widely held assessment of why they voted. Yet the results of what was probably the country's most democratic election appeared to be more political infighting, more bloodshed and potentially grave obstacles to United States policy in El Salvador. Although the Christian Democrats of President Jose Napoleon Duarte emerged with a plurality - 35.3 percent of the nearly 1.5 million votes cast - rightist parties that oppose the party's social and economic reforms together won 52.4 percent and 36 seats in the Constituent Assembly. The Christian Democrats won the remaining 24 seats in the assembly, which is to write a new constitution and appoint an interim government. The United States, which had staked its hopes on a Christian Democratic victory, was ''inspired'' by the turnout, as President Reagan told his news conference. But officials were clearly dismayed by the rightist vote totals, in particular the strong showing of the Nationalist Republican Alliance. The party is led by Roberto d'Aubuisson, a cashiered army major believed responsible for death-squad murders, among them the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero two years ago. During the campaign, Mr. d'Aubuisson referred to the Christian Democrats as ''Communists'' and vowed to ''exterminate'' the guerrillas in three months.

The writer is an executive vice president of the New York Bank for Savings, the state's oldest savings bank, the nation's second oldest and the creator of the passbook savings account. Ten days ago the pressure of interest rates forced the ''beehive bank,'' as it called itself, to merge with the Buffalo Savings Bank. The following is Mr. Ganoe's account of the bank's final days as an independent entity. --------------------------------------------------------------------- The senior officers of the New York Bank for Savings gathered Thursday, March 18, at the Christ Cella Restaurant on East 46th Street for a surprise dinner to honor Eugene Callan, their chairman and president. Mr. Callan had been told some weeks before that he would be required to resign when the bank's financial difficulties forced it to be merged out of existence. The uncertainty and worry which had dominated our lives for months was forgotten for one night. It was an evening of jokes and frivolity, and Mr. Callan called it his ''firing party.''

Iran's sudden major breakthrough in the long-stalemated war with Iraq is having repercussions throughout the divided and volatile Middle East. As details of a crushing defeat of entrenched Iraqi forces in the Dizful area emerged here, the fears of the more conservative Arab nations were underscored by an unscheduled, emergency trip to Baghdad today by the Defense Minister of Saudi Arabia, Prince Sultan. Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the small, oil-rich nations along the Gulf have openly worried that an Iranian victory over President Saddam Hussein of Iraq in the 18-month-old war would make them vulnerable to the kind of Islamic fundamentalist revolution advocated by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Hostilities Could Spread A key question over the coming days will be whether these countries would be willing to commit troops to shore up President Hussein as they see his position crumbling.

KEY money, furniture money, fixture fees, finder's fees, cash under t he table and other practices, legal and illegal, have become facts o f life in New York City and the amounts people are paying to get t enancy of rental apartments are sometimes staggering. Brokers, lawyers, owners and apartment hunters tell of demands as high as $30,000 for luxury rentals on the East Side and $1,000 to $3,000 payments apparently have become almost routine. Joan Lang, a 25-year-old reporter for Standard and Poor's, paid $1,500 for the furniture in a Gramercy Park studio last month and considers herself lucky. She termed the payment an ''unavoidable investment.'' For a $360 a month apartment, said Miss Lang, ''I know I got a good deal.''

YEARS OF UPHEAVAL By Henry Kissinger. Illustrated. 1,283 pp. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. $24.95. HENRY KISSINGER so obviously enjoyed walking the high wire with the world on his shoulders, it is hard to believe he really minded having to do it with a crippled President tied to his back. The second volume of his interminable yet endlessly fascinating memoirs mourns this burden, the ''tragedy'' of Watergate that ruined his six-ring act. But in the telling, the book cannot help celebrating the incomparable Kissinger feats of survival. Indeed, it belongs among those feats. It carries on the performance, aiming to demonstrate that survival is ethic enough in a lawless world, and that people who master the art are obliged to keep teaching it, to save the planet from both the ignorant and the innocent. As Richard Nixon's Presidency expired, Kissinger's already great influence soared. This volume recounts that incredible year, between the summers of 1973 and 1974, in which the refugee from Nazi Germany became the most glamorous and probably most powerful man in America. The book begins with his baptism as Secretary of State by a grudging President floating in a swimming pool at San Clemente; it ends with that President on his knees at the door of the Lincoln Bedroom, beside a Secretary of State who can now remember awe - but not his own posture or prayer.