What was going on when I was born?

Without committing President Reagan, Treasury Secretary Donald T. Regan hinted broadly today that the Administration would accept a temporary surtax on upper-income taxpayers as part of a budget compromise with Congress. The Secretary also articulated more fully than he has before the view that concerted action by Congress and the Administration to shrink future projected budget deficits is essential to reducing interest rates and to the success of the Reagan economic policy. For the first time, Mr. Regan also said that the Administration has to Paul A. Volcker, the Fed chairman, repeated his call for big reductions in projected Federal budget deficits. Page D2. deal with the public perception - mistaken in his view - that the President's tax and budget-cutting policies have hurt lower-income groups more than others.

Donald T. Regan hinted at possible acceptance of a surtax on upperincome taxpayers as part of a budget compromise. But the Treasury Secretary worded his statement carefully, and did not say that President Reagan agreed with the idea. (Page D1.) Budget negotiators took a new tack: setting only basic targets for spending and taxes for the coming fiscal year, and leaving the politically difficult details to Congress. (A1.) Paul A. Volcker urged big cuts in the projected deficit beginning in fiscal 1983 - by more than $100 billion a year - and said the goal was feasible ''without touching the third year of the tax cut.'' He was not specific but said an energy tax was a good place to start. (D2.)

Ever since Indocin, the first modern prescription drug for arthritis, was introduced in 1965 by Merck & Company, there always seems to have been room for new entrants. Now the pharmaceutical industry is about to put the market to its sternest test. This month, the Food and Drug Administration approved new anti-arthritics from both Pfizer Inc. and Eli Lilly & Company. In coming months, more entries are expected.

All forms of life - humans, birds, insects - are equal yet unique parts of a balanced and beautiful universe. That is the belief reflected in American Indian totems and effigies on exhibit today through May 29 at ACA American Indian Arts, 25 East 73d Street. Among the objects are totem poles and ceremonial masks from the Northwest Coast, a Zuni fetish of a buffalo carved almost 600 years ago, Navajo rugs depicting supernatural beings and bowls dating from the year 1000 decorated with whimsically stylized humans and animals. A free slide lecture comparing symbols and totems in European and American art will be offered at noon and 5:30 P.M. today by Dr. Robert W. Venables, a curator at the Museum of the American Indian. Admission is free. BRECHT'S 'EDWARD II' ON 86TH ST.

In a region long recognized as conservative, intensely patriotic and pro-military, Jesuits and Junior Leaguers, pediatricians and politicians, scientists, soldiers and students are beginning to emerge in a broad-based and growing movement against the use or buildup of nuclear weapons. ''I believe that opposition to the nuclear arms race is the movement of the 1980's,'' said James Olcese, who teaches biology at Southwestern University and was one of the organizers of Ground Zero Week activities in Memphis, Tenn. ''It really gets down to our whole moral fiber, our social structure, our economic structure, all the things on which our country was based. ''And that's one reason why we have a much wider base of support in the South at the beginning of this movement than we had at any time in the antiwar protests of the 60's,'' he went on. ''That's also the reason President Reagan is so worried about it.''

Two columns of tired but exuberant marchers converged here today to proclaim the virtues of a 5-cent deposit on bottles and cans sold in New York State. ''We can't match the beverage industry's money and influence, so we're letting our walking do our talking,'' said Thomas Walthen, an organizer of the 750-mile ''Bottle Bill Walk.'' It began on April 1 in two corners of the state, Montauk, L.I., and Niagara Falls, and ended today, the 12th anniversary of Earth Day, as 80 cheering, placard-carrying marchers linked up in a park outside the Capitol for a rally. As a cold wind roared beneath a statue of George Washington, legislators railed against the evils of a ''throwaway society.''

''I will not disguise from you that there are real difficulties and real obstacles.'' - Francis Pym, British Foreign Secretary, discussing Falklands crisis. (A1:4.)

Nicholas F. Brady accepted the rare invitation to become a United States Senator from New Jersey after persuading himself that he could do as well in politics as he has done on Wall Street. ''I'm told the Senate goes back to the concept of a citizens' legislature,'' he said in an interview Wednesday as he relaxed in his freshly decorated Senate office. ''In the old days, people came from everywhere - the rich and poor, farmers, doctors, dentists. I'm a citizen. I'm down here. I'm going to do the best I can.''

Madison Square Garden will remain open, with $1 million more in tax abatements than had been discussed during long negotiations, New York City officials said yesterday. They said that the Rangers hockey team and the Knickerbockers basketball team would stay in the city for at least 10 years. This, they said, will be announced today at a news conference at the Garden, where the Rangers will be fighting to stay in the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Garden's management had promised that it would let New Jersey officials know yesterday whether the Rangers would move to the Meadowlands from the city, where the hockey team first skated 56 years ago.

Delta Air Lines reported yesterday that it had a loss of $18.4 million for its third fiscal quarter, ended March 31, the first quarterly loss for the airline since 1957. The Trans World Corporation, parent company of T.W.A., also reported a large loss for the March 31 first quarter: $102.7 million, compared with a loss of $57.5 million in the 1981 period. Delta and T.W.A. were the second and third major airlines to report earnings results for the first three months of 1982, a quarter thatmight turn out to be one of the worst in airline history. American Airlines reported a loss of $41.6 million earlier this week, bringing the total loss for the three airlines to $162.7 million.

International Salvadoran rightists took control of the new Constituent Assembly, blocking the centrist Christian Democrats from all key legislative posts. The right-wing coalition elected Roberto d'Aubuisson, head of an ultra-rightist party, to be president of the assembly, and elected right-wing candidates to the nine other leadership positions. The action followed reports that a coalition of the centrists and a conservative party, backed by the military, planned to name a moderate as provisional President. (Page A1, Col. 6.) U.S.-British talks on the Falklands were held for four hours in Washington. Foreign Secretary Francis Pym said that he and Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. had made ''a useful start'' in discussing the latest ideas for resolving the British-Argentine dispute. There was surprisingly little sense of crisis surrounding the meeting even though the British flotilla was believed to be only a few days away from the islands. (A1:4.)

The Honda Motor Company, the first Japanese company scheduled to open an auto manufacturing plant in the United States, will no longer resist organizing efforts by the United Automobile Workers, industry sources said. The decision, which a Honda representative described as ''the beginning of a new era of cooperation,'' came after a U.A.W. threat of a campaign to encourage Americans to boycott Honda motorcycles and cars. A Honda spokesman said that ''the dispute is over and this should be the beginning of a new era of cooperation.'' He declined to discuss details of the agreement. U.A.W. officials did not return several phone calls.