What was going on when I was born?

Former Associate Justice Abe Fortas, who resigned from the Supreme Court in 1969, died of a ruptured aorta Monday night at his home here. At 71 years of age, he maintained an active law practice. Just two weeks before his death, Mr. Fortas returned to the Supreme Court to argue a case for the first time since his resignation. He said in an interview that he planned to keep on practicing law ''until my clients retire me or the Lord retires me.'' Clamor Over $20,000 Fee Mr. Fortas resigned from the Court amid an uproar over disclosures that he had accepted a $20,000 fee from a foundation controlled by Louis E. Wolfson, a friend and former client who at the time of the payment was under Federal investigation for violating securities laws.

The poorest countries may receive an additional $500 million this year in interest-free loans from the International Development Association, an affiliate of the World Bank, the bank reported today. Countries that contribute money to the association agreed after a two-day meeting that $3.1 billion may be available for the financial year ending June 30 instead of $2.6 billion that had been contemplated, following a sharp cutback by the United States. The United States had originally planned to give $1.08 billion to the agency, which makes 50-year, no-interest rate loans to about 40 of the poorest countries, but Congress scaled this back to $700 million as part of its budget-cutting effort. The other 32 donor countries then said that they too would scale back their contributions in corresponding amounts.

Metromedia, Inc., the nation's fourth-largest broadcast operation, yesterday announced an unusual plan to raise $450 million, some of which would be used in connection with its pending $220 million purchase of WCVB-TV in Boston. The company proposes to sell some of the operating assets of its Foster & Kleiser outdoor advertising division to investors in a limited partnership. Metromedia or a subsidiary would be the general partner, and would not only manage the partnership business through its Foster & Kleiser division, but also would retain the right to reacquire the partnership's assets.

Governor Carey is proposing major changes in the state's medical malpractice insurance system, including the creation of a state fund to pay 90 percent of the cost of malpractice awards of between $250,000 and $1 million. The changes would be linked to measures designed to strengthen the system of disciplining physicians, which has come under attack for being cumbersome and ineffective. ''It is the carrot-and-stick approach,'' said Dr. Jeffrey A. Sachs, an aide to Mr. Carey. ''We want to help the majority of doctors who are good, by moving against those who are not.''

New Yorkers have a tendency to take everything personally, and that includes the weather. In other parts of the world, what took place yesterday would have been called a blizzard, but in New York City, it was characterized as divine retribution, poetic justice and just my luck. The slush at every street corner and sewer drain, the white drape on the new shoots in Central Park, the arc of snow and ice and water shooting from under passing buses, the stinging sleet in the face and the mascara running blackly down fashionable cheeks, the momentary cessation of spring for an unseasonable dose of winter: all were viewed, not as a momentous natural phenomenon, but as the meterological equivalent of a subway door slamming in the face or a near miss by a taxicab. A man who preaches with a portable microphone at the corner of 42d Street and Eighth Avenue said the snow had fallen to signal the coming judgment to New Yorkers, who are all sinners.

AS many as half of all women suffer at one time or another from painfully swollen, lumpy breasts, a frightening though noncancerous condition most commonly called cystic breast disease, fibrocystic disease and cystic mastitis. Although the condition is often temporary, disappearing after about three months, many women experience the discomfort and distressing lumps month after month, year after year. While many remedies, ranging from a low-salt diet or vitamin B1 to the solvent DMSO, have been proposed in the past, few have stood the test of careful scientific study. In the last few years new treatments have shown great promise in reducing symptoms and often in eliminating them. The remedies include large doses of vitamin E; a hormonal drug, danazol, newly approved for the treatment of breast disease, and changes in diet to eliminate caffeine and its chemical relatives. Symptoms of fibrocystic disease are pronounced in the week or two before the start of menstrual bleeding, then usually fade, only to recur the next month. In some women breast tenderness and lumpiness are constant problems. The disease is often most noticeable between December and May, when the ovaries are more active in those in the Northern Hemisphere.

An unseasonable blizzard whirled about a foot of snow and record cold yesterday into a metropolitan area long wearied of winter. The punishing storm, punctuated by thunder and high winds, bedeviled traffic on New York City streets and country roads, sent schoolchildren and office workers home early, canceled legislative sessions and elections and quite literally nipped spring in the bud. Through the long day, people inspected the white sky, searching for an end to the snowfall. At about 4:30 P.M., the snow stopped, but the forecast was for treacherous conditions and blowing drifts through the night. Today there should be some sunshine, with continued high winds and temperatures in the 30's.

After months of fitful negotiations with state and local officials, the Reagan Administration has suspended its effort to write legislation transferring welfare and food stamp programs to the states in exchange for a Federal assumption of all Medicaid costs. The transfer is at the heart of President Reagan's ''new federalism'' initiative. Officials at the White House and the National Governors Association said today that they had reached an impasse in negotiations for a swap of program responsibilities. ''That part of the 'new federalism' is not going anywhere,'' said Bernard S. Chabel, a spokesman for the governors' association.

EASTER, like other traditional holidays, is usually a time for taking out the old family recipe file and serving what everyone is expecting. For most people it is not a time of experimentation. This Sunday, three cooks who trace their roots back at least as far as the Civil War will be cooking what their families have always cooked on Easter Sunday. Norma Jean Darden and her sister, Carole Darden Lloyd, who several years ago wrote a charming combination of family memoir and cookbook called ''Spoonbread and Strawberry Wine'' (Fawcett Crest), will be making lemon roasted leg of lamb. The recipe may sound Greek, but it has come down through generations of the Darden family, whose roots are in Wilson, N.C. This Easter the family will gather in Montclair, N.J., where the sisters were born and grew up and where their father, a physician, still practices. All of the guests will be relatives from both sides of the family: two aunts, cousins and their spouses and children, three generations in all. The Dardens talk as easily of making Easter dinner for 30 or 40 as others talk of making breakfast for one.

A White House official said tonight that both Britain and Argentina were agreeable to the idea of talking to the United States about a peaceful solution to the Falkland Islands crisis. Earlier, Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. met separately with the Ambassadors of Britain and Argentina in an effort to open discussions to find a solution to the confrontation over the windswept South Atlantic islands. It was after the meeting that the White House official said: ''It's clear that they are willing to sit down and talk to the United States. They are not only willing, but enthusiastic.''

A tremendous change in American food tastes has taken place over the past 10 years, amounting to what I consider a gastronomic revolution. It can be seen in the proliferation of gourmet food and kitchen shops, the increase of fine cookbooks, the broadening interest in wine, the surge in the number of first-rate cooking schools, and perhaps most interestingly in the widening scope of what home cooks will tackle in their kitchens. Home meals were once predictable affairs, based on a standard repertory of recipes that rarely seemed to reach beyond the realm of meat and potatoes or tuna casserole. No more. Cooks now realize that with a mastery of the basic culinary skills, whole new frontiers are open to them. They are taking on, with great success, the cuisines of France, Italy, the Orient, often combining them with cooking ideas from their own region of the United States. They are also discovering the advantages of fresh foods, whether it be just-caught fish from local waters or romaine or red leaf lettuce right out of the garden. Along with this goes the more skillful and imaginative use of herbs and spices that cooks are displaying. I can remember when parsley was the most ''far out'' herb in the garden, and poultry seasoning and sage the most frequently used. Nowadays such flavorings as fresh basil, rosemary and thyme seem almost commonplace.

The playoff schedule published yesterday for the Ranger-Flyer hockey series incorrectly listed the date of the second game. It will be played at Madison Square Garden tomorrow night.