What was going on when I was born?

More than 3,000 left hands reached out to give money to James Denig yesterday during his 7 A.M.-to-3 P.M. shift at a Queens-Midtown Tunnel tollbooth and, for the first time in two years, he found he could do nothing by rote. That was because he was trying to memorize new toll rates for 10 categories of vehicles, handle coins as often as paper money and juggle a relatively small number of the new bronze-colored tokens. It was the second day of higher tolls at nine bridges and tunnels operated by the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority. When it was over, Mr. Denig, who was off Monday, the first day, had his usual low-back pain but also an occupational headache.

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously today that the International Longshoremen's Association violated Federal labor law by refusing to handle Soviet cargo in American ports in protest against the Soviet Union's intervention in Afghani-stan. The decision leaves the longshoremen's union open to suits for damages by companies that suffered financial losses as a result of the boycott. It lasted for several months in 1980 and affected ports from Maine to Texas. Associate Justice Lewis F. Powell wrote the opinion, which affirmed a ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, in Boston.

''PEOPLE said it would either be a hit or a real dog,'' Dan Daley said this week about ''Still in Saigon,'' the song he wrote last May about a Vietnam veteran's unbearably intense memories of combat. This year, the Charlie Daniels Band recorded the song, and four weeks ago it entered the singles charts at No. 75. This week, it is No. 33, with intense sales action and airplay reported.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, entrusted with regulating the nation's financial markets, is caught in a heated debate over what role it should play as an enforcement agency. And with the aid of the current chairman, John S.R. Shad, those who say that the commission has often gone too far in policing the business community have gained ascendancy. Since Mr. Shad's appointment last year, the agency has adopted a sweeping package of disclosure rules to simplify the filing of information, which all corporations must do to market new securities. The commission has also reduced the minimum net capital requirement that Wall Street firms must meet -an action, the agency's staff said, that could free $500 million in capital to expand the activities of Wall Street brokerage and investment houses. Decisions such as these have won praise from many on Wall Street, where the agency's disclosure requirements had been ritually condemned as a burden on companies, especially small ones, and a discouragement to capital formation.

President Reagan appealed to Argentina and Britain today to show restraint in their dispute over the Falkland Islands. He also urged the Organization of American States to delay any action on the crisis so long as the United States was engaged in trying to bring about a peaceful solution. The O.A.S. permanent council voted 18 to 0 today, with the United States and two other nations abstaining, to convene a special foreign ministers' meeting Monday to consider collective action against Britain. The American delegate, William Middendorf 2d, said such a meeting would inevitably cast the group ''in an unhelpful confrontational light'' instead of as a possible mediator.

On the last day for public comment on the antitrust settlement between the Justice Department and the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, the Federal Communications Commission proposed today a major amendment that would permit Bell's 22 local operating companies to engage in a variety of unregulated businesses once they are divested. The F.C.C. said it would be ''unnecessary and unwise'' to limit the operating companies to regulated telephone service once they are divested and that the restriction should be deleted from the proposed antitrust settlement. The F.C.C.'s comments were among dozens of revisions to the settlement proposed by A.T.& T.'s competitors, private citizens and Government regulatory agencies. The proposals were filed with the Justice Department, which must publish both the comments and its responses in the Federal Register.

Archibald MacLeish, distinguished poet, playwright, statesman and man of letters, died last night at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, which he entered March 20 for treatment of an undisclosed illness. He was 89 years old and had lived in Conway, Mass. Few American writers achieved the occupational diversity that Mr. MacLeish did. He was a soldier, lawyer, magazine editor, Librarian of Congress, director of the Office of Facts and Figures, Assistant Secretary of State for Cultural Affairs; a founder of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; Harvard professor, television dramatist and gentleman farmer. Above all, though, he was a poet, who drew his themes from the large social and political issues of the day as well as from the more private emotions of daily life. It was an achievement recognized by three Pulitzer Prizes and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. His latest book, a collection of letters edited by R.H. Winnick, will be published this summer by Houghton Mifflin.

Powerful mullahs riding in bulletproof Mercedes limousines with smoked windows, followed by carloads of armed guards. Fifteen-year-old boys volunteering to walk across Iraqi mine fields. Long lines forming before six o'clock in the morning for scarce, rationed food. Political graffiti scrawled on walls around the city: ''Death to women whose heads are uncovered!'' These are some of the sharpest images of a return to revolutionary Iran after an absence of 15 months. This is still a land in the grip of Islamic religious fervor, caught up in a movement that is at once revolutionary and reactionary. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini still enjoys a huge base of popular support, but the country is facing ever-mounting internal problems. The economy is a shambles, with the cash-poor Government trying to barter oil for foreign goods. While there is little sign that any opposition group could topple the Government, internal political rivalries have blocked action on key issues, including land redistribution. What remains of an educated middle class is increasingly alienated by clerical rule. Yet to the astonishment of outsiders, this unique, strange and sometimes contradictory revolution seems, somehow, to putter along. American reporters, banned since the end of the hostage crisis in January 1981, were welcomed here in April to view the Iranian rout of long-e@ntrenched Iraqi forces near Dizful. The reporters were restricted to war coverage, however, and were not allowed to interview Iranian officials.

International President Reagan urged Argentina and Britain to show restraint in the Falklands dispute, and he appealed to the Organization of American States to delay any action in the crisis as long as Washington was trying to bring about a peaceful solution. The O.A.S. council voted 18 to 0, with the United States abstaining, to convene a foreign ministers' meeting Monday to consider collective action against Britain. (Page A1, Column 4.) Britain expressed deep reservations about the latest Falklands peace proposals and said that Foreign Secretary Francis Pym would fly to Washington tomorrow with counterproposals. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher made the announcement at a tense and crowded session of the House of Commons. (A14:3-6.)

The Timex Computer Corporation, an affiliate of the company that introduced the world's first inexpensive wristwatch, yesterday introduced the first personal computer to retail at around $100. The Timex Sinclair 1000, with a suggested retail price of $99.95, will go on sale in July and be aimed at the first-time computer customer and the educational market, two areas that have not yet been well tapped, industry analysts said. The computer is a four-chip design that connects to any television screen, is only 6 by 6 1/2 by 1 1/2 inches, weighs 12 ounces and has its own keyboard. The device is a slightly improved version of one of the world's best-selling personal computers, the Sinclair ZX81.

''I think the economy is now poised for a recovery. I know of nothing that would be a greater tonic for the economy right now than for the Congress and the White House to come together on a plan that would lower the deficits and create new jobs.''

Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, addressing a convention of the Social Democratic Party, warned advocates of a nuclear freeze today that its enactment in Europe would amount to accepting the ''unbelievable Soviet armada that is aimed at us.'' Mr. Schmidt said the West must not let the Soviet advantage become permanent. He was referring to the intermediate-range Soviet SS-20 missiles targeted on NATO countries. In Washington, President Reagan renewed an invitation to Leonid I. Brezhnev to meet him in June at the United Nations, and said such a meeting would not preclude a full summit conference later in the year as proposed by the Soviet leader. (Page A7.)