What was going on when I was born?

Speaking before the city's Rent Guidelines Board, a parade of politicians and tenant advocates sharply condemned yesterday requests by owners of rent-stabilized apartments for monthly rent increases of 12 to 30 percent for leases during the year starting Oct. 1. They urged the board instead to set rent increases for leases beginning in this period at 2, 4 and 6 percent for one- , two- and three-year leases. City Councilwoman Carol Greitzer said the landlord group, the Rent Stabilization Association, was seeking ''ludicrous amounts that have been arrived at by sleight-of-hand figures.'' The owners proposed the increases Sunday.

An article Sunday about a primary contest for the House of Representa- tives in Ohio incorrectlydescribed the status of Representative Dennis E. Eckart, Democrat of Ohio. He is a candidate for re-election this year in a district adjacent to the one he has rep- resented.

The American Telephone and Telegraph Company and its affiliated local companies last year paid nearly $3.5 million in fees to professors and other consultants for academic services and, in some cases, for providing testimony favorable to Bell before Congressional panels and Federal courts, according to an industry study published today. The practice of contracting for the services of economists and others and of using their expert testimony before Congress is a common one. Congressmen and regulators, furthermore, recognize that such experts who testify on behalf of companies are often paid by the companies to do so. But A.T.& T. spends more on such activity than any other company in the telecommunications industry, the Federal Communications Commission says. It comes close to cornering the market on academic experts in telecommunications, according to a newsletter published by the North American Telephone Association, a trade organization representing the telephone-equipment industry.

The Reagan Administration has cut off funds to the National Academy of Sciences for research into the controversial question of acid rain. As a result, the Administration is being accused of allowing its politics to interfere with important scientific inquiry. The Administration denies those accusations. But it is clear, from interviews, public statements and events of the last several months, that strains and distrust have developed between the Administration and the Academy.

Wall Street apparently took a dim view yesterday of the Mesa Petroleum Company's hostile takeover bid for the Cities Service Company. Shares of Cities Service fell 1 3/4, to 36 1/4, in heavy trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares of Mesa, which is facing a competing takeover bid from Cities Service, edged up 1/8, to 18 3/4, also in heavy trading. In a widely anticipated move, Mesa went directly to Cities Service stockholders yesterday with an offer to pay $45 a share for 15 percent of the company, which would total $555 million in cash.

Governor Carey warned today that he would not approve New York City's financial plan if it was based on a local aid program passed last week by the Legislature. Mr. Carey, who is chairman of the State Financial Control Board, which oversees the city's finances, said the Legislature had failed to enact a tax plan to support its new $386 million spending program, which includes a little more than $100 million in assistance to the city. He said that since the state could not be sure it would have the money for aid to New York City and other localities, the spending threatened the state's credit, and thus the city's. ''Unless there's an adequate financial plan on the part of the state, there cannot be an adequate financial plan on the part of the city,'' he declared at a news conference here.

Whether you are the victim of a burglary in Brooklyn, a flood in Florida, an insurrection in Indonesia or a credit union collapse in California there is a good chance you will be looking to Washington for reimbursement. Uncle Sam's insurance operations, even without counting Social Security or unemployment compensation, now cover more than $2,000 billion in risks, dwarfing the exposure of any private insurance company. As a group, the Federal insurance funds represent a vast grab bag of off-budget programs administered by more than a dozen agencies but coordinated by none. Many of the programs are virtually unheard of except by their constituents. Recently, however, some of the Government insurance companies have become more visible, particularly in banking and pensions, where economic hard times have been piled on top of more basic problems. In fact, Representative Claude D. Pepper, Democrat of Florida, chairman of the House Committee on Aging, warned at a hearing today that one more bankruptcy filing like that of Braniff International could force the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, a Federal agency insuring pension plans, to go bankrupt itself.

Two of New York's biggest savings banks, the Bowery and the Emigrant, are in danger of failing by January if they do not receive Government assistance, Alan R. Cohen, Acting Superintendent of New York State Banks, told Congress yesterday. The Bowery, with total assets of $5.1 billion, is the fourthlargest state-chartered savings bank in the state, and Emigrant, with assets of $3.1 billion, is the fifth-largest. There are 94 state-chartered savings banks in New York State. In addition to the Bowery and Emigrant, the department projects that the United Mutual Savings Bank of New York and the Mechanics Savings Bank of Elmira are in danger of running out of net worth by January.

THE massive bird with the great hooked beak was perched on top of a pole about 200 feet away. The angle of the sun and the bird's fluffed-out plumage made it difficult at first to spot its snow-white head and tail and its brownish-black body. But after a few seconds the telltale markings could be seen clearly in the binoculars: It was, indeed, a bald eagle. The bird's presence last month along with a dozen or more others at the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Cambridge, Md., was an indication that the drastic decline of the nation's bald eagle population in recent decades seems to have been halted. And reports of slowly growing populations in the majority of the eagle nesting areas within the 48 contiguous states augur well for the future of the handsome wild creature with the fierce beetle-browed mien that became the nation's official emblem 200 years ago. The grandeur of eagles has been an inspiration since the Paleolithic Era when drawings of the creatures first appeared in European caves. The birds came to symbolize courage, authority, power, freedom and immortality. Eagles served as emblems of the Babylonian empire, Charlemagne, the Caesars, many Holy Roman and Byzantine emperors, Napoleon and the czars of Russia. It was the bird of Jove, the god of gods.

Listen, my children, and you shall hear, Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five; Hardly a man is now alive Who remembers that famous day and year. By GENE I. MAEROFF FOR generations of schoolchildren, memorizing such lines as these by Longfellow was a standard requirement, a kind of mental gymnastics that meant endless practicing until the words were indelibly fixed in one's mind. It was a ritual that often concluded with a solo performance, the anxious student standing at the front of the class and reciting the painfully learned lines. While youngsters in some schools are still expected to memorize and recite passages from literature, the practice is no longer so widespread and the only common body of memorized school material for many students today seems to be the multiplication tables, if that.

International A string of P.L.O. bases was captured by Israeli forces advancing from southern Lebanon northward into Palestinian-controlled towns and villages just south of Beirut. Israeli and Syrian jets fought over the southern suburbs of Beirut. Syria reportedly lost a plane. A spokesman for the Syrian Army said that the Israelis came into direct conflict with units of the 30,000-man Syrian peacekeeping force in Lebanon. (Page A1, Col. 6.) Syrian and Israeli ground forces began fighting in southern Lebanon, a communique from the army high command in Damascus said. It said that Syrian forces confronted Israeli tanks advancing on Syrian positions south of Jezzin and that an undisclosed number of them had been destroyed. (A14:1-5.)

''A divided Lebanon must not be the outcome of this present violence.