What was going on when I was born?

''Part of creating is understanding that there is always more to do; nothing is ever completely finished,'' says Rachel Lambert Mellon, whose landscape designs grace such varied places as The White House, Jacqueline Onassis' summer home on Martha's Vineyard and Hubert de Givenchy's Manoir du Jonchet in France. In the same tradition as an earlier landscape designer, Beatrix Jones Farrand, Mrs. Mellon is one of those inherently talented women, who, though not formally trained, has read her way through the subject and observed and learned in her travels both horticulture and landscape design. Recalling their work together at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library on Boston harbor, I.M. Pei says, ''Mrs. Mellon has the combination of sensitivity and imagery with technical knowledge that you only find among the best professionals.'' It was she who suggested for the Library grounds the dune grass which now bends in the wind - symbolic of the Cape Cod terrain where the President loved to walk. This past year Mrs. Mellon has been occupied overseeing the completion of her own new garden library, a building designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes, on the grounds of Oak Spring, the farm where she lives with her husband, Paul Mellon, the art patron and philanthopist. The library houses her extensive collection of botannical and gardening books amassed over the years.

Joseph Paul Franklin, an avowed racist convicted of two murders in Salt Lake City, was indicted by a Federal grand jury today on a charge of shooting Vernon E. Jordan Jr., the civil rights leader. Assistant Attorney General William Bradford Reynolds, head of the civil rights division of the Department of Justice, said the indictment of Mr. Franklin, 32 years old, was returned in the Federal District Court in South Bend, Ind. The indictment charged that on May 29, 1980, Mr. Franklin violated the civil rights of Mr. Jordan, then president of the National Urban League, by firing a .30-06 rifle at him as he was getting out of an automobile outside the Marriott Motor Inn in Fort Wayne, Ind. The legal right cited was in the statute providing freedom to use the accommodations of an establishment providing lodging to transient guests without interference, regardless of race and color.

The Federal Department of Education has found that New York City's Board of Education has failed to comply with an agreement to improve the balance of minority teachers in the city's public schools. The board has been told by the department that if it cannot meet the goals of its five-year-old agreement with the Government by ''voluntary measures,'' then ''mandatory transfers'' of teachers will have to be made, an official at the department and officials at the city board said today. At issue is an agreement that was worked out in 1977 to put more black and Hispanic teachers into predominantly white schools and more white teachers into schools populated mostly by members of minority groups. Effort by D'Amato A formal letter informing the board of noncompliance is being drafted, said Jane Glickman, an information officer for the department.

In only a decade, money market mutual funds have captured the fancy, and the savings, of millions of Americans. When the latest figures are announced today, the money funds - more than 165 in all - are expected to pass the $200 billion mark in total assets, up from $10 billion at the end of 1978 and $74 billion at the end of 1980. As they have mushroomed, the funds have transformed the role of the consumer from one of unwitting subsidizer of business loans and home mortgages into a full-fledged investor with access to the same high market interest rates as the big institutions. While they have not increased the total pool of savings, most economists say, they have clearly altered the flows. Most notably, the funds pulled deposits away from the nation's thrift institutions, operating under Federal regulation and holding large portfolios of low-interest mortgages. And they encroached on the traditional preserves of commercial banks as well.

''One life is more important than anything we can say about life.'' -Elie Wiesel, on postponing genocide conference because of reported Turkish threats against Jews. (A1:6.)

Disarmament advocates said yesterday that the United States had held up visas for about 500 people who want to attend activities in connection with a special session on disarmament in the United Nations General Assembly. The session starts Monday. Among those who have been unable to get approval for entry so far, according to Sidney Peck, director of the International Liaison Office, a private coordinating group, are a former President of Portugal, retired Gen. Francisco da Costa Gomes; a former deputy commander of North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces in Italy, retired Gen. Nino Pasti, and a Labor member of the British Parliament, James A. Lamond. Mayor Koch and other officials, anticipating one of the largest demonstrations in New York City's history, announced yesterday that more than 6,000 municipal workers, mostly police officers, would be mobilized June 12 for a nuclear disarmament march past the United Nations and a rally in Central Park. (Page A11.)

Orders for new manufactured goods fell 2.3 percent in April, to a seasonally adjusted $155.3 billion, the Commerce Department reported. The decline is a strong sign that the recession is continuing, both private and Government analysts agreed, with high interest rates stifling economic activity. (Page D1.) Sales of new single-family homes fell 15.3 percent in April, the Government said. (D15.) Stiffer penalties for fraud in securities or commodities trading were provided in new legislation signed by Governor Carey. He also approved a bill eliminating the requirement that retailers prepay the local share of sales taxes collected on March sales. (D3.)

The new chairman of the International Harvester Company, in a cautious assessment of the company's prospects, said today that Harvester's cash position was only strong enough to guarantee its survival for the next 60 to 90 days and possibly through the end of the fiscal year, on Oct. 31. Discussing the prospects of the floundering company at his first news conference since he joined Harvester last month, Louis W. Menk said that vast layoffs - along with inventory trimming, divestitures and liquidity-preserving measures - had improved the company's cash position in the past few months. He said the second fiscal quarter, which ended in April, had been the ''most critical.'' However, he continued, ''That's not to say we won't have more critical quarters.''

The chairman of the City Council Finance Committee said yesterday that the city could probably afford to hire up to 1,000 new police officers in the next fiscal year. The committee chairman, Edward L. Sadowsky, a Queens Democrat, said he would push for the hiring of the new officers if the State Legislature gave the city the aid and taxing power that the city had requested. Although those actions, valued at $519 million, are still uncertain, city officials have expressed confidence that the bulk of the money would be forthcoming eventually. ''If the Albany pieces fall into place, I think we can squeeze some money out for the police,'' Mr. Sadowsky said. ''I would be looking for somewhere between 500 and 1,000 cops.''

An article in Metropolitan Report Saturday about the Democratic race in New Jersey for the United States Senate incorrectly described the cir- cumstances of the Princeton Demo- cratic Club's decision to support Bar- bara Boggs Sigmund. The club en- dorsed only Mrs. Sigmund.

ALARMED by the seemingly magnetic pull of coin-operated video games, a growing number of parents and school officials across the country are pressing local governments to pass laws restricting young people from playing the games in commercial establishments. Several municipalities, including Babylon, L.I., Oakland, Calif., Marlborough, Mass., and Durham, N.H., have passed laws in the last year that restrict the use of coin-operated video games by teenagers during school hours. Meanwhile, some large cities, such as Boston, Chicago and San Francisco, are considering proposals to regulate the public use of these games. Advocates of restrictions argue that the proliferation of videogame machines and arcades frequently results in truancy problems. Many say that video arcades become places where drug dealing occurs.

For more than half a century, New York State's budgets have been crafted by Governors. The Legislature has generally confined itself to some minor alterations. The system was designed that way in 1927, when the State Constitution was amended to concentrate fiscal power in the Governor's office. In 1982 that system has very nearly collapsed.