What was going on when I was born?

A dispatch from Ho Chi Minh City on June 7 about a visit there by Vietnam veterans gave an incorrect date for a meeting the veterans had with John H. Holdridge, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific. It took place May 13.

An article June 3 on the declining number of Roman Catholic priests in the United States incorrectly depicted the views of the Rev. Avery Dulles. Father Dulles has never advocated that priests be allowed to marry.

Treasury Secretary Donald T. Regan, while continuing to criticize the Federal Reserve Board's handling of the nation's money supply, said today that he sees little need now to bring the Fed under more direct control of the Administration. Mr. Regan, in a speech to the National Association of Accountants and in comments later, acknowledged that the Treasury is studying options for limiting the independence of the Fed, including bringing the Fed within the Treasury or putting the Treasury Secretary on the Federal Reserve Board. But he immediately sought to soften the impact of his remarks.

Secretary of Labor Raymond J. Donovan, in his first extensive reponse to reports that he had ties to organized crime figures, said today that he had been the target of ''vicious attacks'' and declared that he did not intend to resign. Mr. Donovan, who had asked for a special prosecutor to investigate the reports, did not address the allegations specifically at an afternoon news conference. He said, however, that he had been the victim of practitioners of ''the wonderland school of justice that stands for judgment now, trial later.'' Reading from a prepared statement, Mr. Donovan said he would address the allegations after Leon Silverman, the special prosecutor, completed and submitted his report, which is due by late summer. Then, he added, ''We may all examine in detail not only who has made charges, but their credibility, their motivations and the source of their knowledge.''

The Supreme Court ruled today that an important civil rights law permitted individuals to sue state and local officials and agencies directly in Federal courts. Voting 7 to 2, the Justices overturned a decision by a Federal appeals court requiring ''exhaustion of state administrative remedies'' before a plaintiff could bring a suit in Federal court under the Civil Rights Act of 1871. That law, usually known as Section 1983, is one of the most powerful and widely used of the Federal civil rights laws. It permits private suits for damages or injunctions for any action ''under color of state law'' that violates a right guaranteed by the Constitution or by Federal law. The case decided today involved a white secretary who contended that blacks were given favored treatment in promotions in the Florida state university system.

The Government today reported the first official indication that the recession, which began last July, may be over. The so-called flash estimate of the gross national product in the second quarter shows that the economy grew six-tenths of 1 percent at an annual rate, after adjustment for inflation, according to Commerce Department figures. This preliminary number, based on incomplete data for the quarter, is the first time that the G.N.P., the broadest measure of the nation's economy, has risen since the July-through-September quarter of last year. Eighth Since World War II But while the recession, the eighth since World War II and the second in two years, appears to be over, according to the G.N.P.flash estimate, the economy could remain stagnant and the strength of the hoped-for recovery is unclear. This means that the unemployment rate, which was 9.5 percent in May, might not climb much higher, but the hoped-for decline might be some months off.

The Princess of Wales gave birth tonight to her first child, a boy, who comes second in line to the British throne after his father, Prince Charles. Crowds outside St. Mary's Hospital in Paddington, a neighborhood in north London, popped the corks on dozens of bottles of champagne when the news was disclosed. Then they began chanting ''We want Charlie!'' and singing ''For He's a Jolly Good Fellow.'' There were similar scenes when an announcement was posted on the gates of Buckingham Palace.

The United States Steel Corporation, asserting that the steel industry ''is in its worst market crisis since the Great Depression,'' said yesterday that it would reduce salaries for its 20,000 management-level employees by at least 5 percent, effective July 1. The reductions, which would range up to 30 percent in the case of the company's most senior executives, were announced in a letter to employees from U.S. Steel's chairman, David M. Roderick. He said the action was necessary because of ''the severe impact of the collapse in the markets for most of our products.'' The nation's largest steel manufacturer also said that 7,000 nonmanagement employees, including secretaries and others who are not represented by a union, would have cost-of-living wage increases frozen beginning July 1. The company declined to elaborate on when the increases were due or how much they amounted to.

The New York Telephone Company asked yesterday for $878 million in annual rate increases, including an average rise of 9.9 percent in the cost of home telephone service throughout the state. The company's request to the state's Public Service Commission sought for the sixth time since 1974 to raise local coin telephone calls, this time from 10 to 25 cents. The company noted that the dime charge had been in effect since 1951 and that a $90 million deficit in coin service, which it said was used mainly by higher-income callers at hotels and airport and railroad terminals, had to be made up by all customers.

An office manager and an underwriter employed by separate insurance companies were shot and slashed to death in a fierce struggle with an assailant in a washroom near their offices on the 20th floor of a tower in Manhattan's financial district yesterday afternoon, the police said. The apparent assailant, a young man wearing a blue three-piece business suit and carrying an attache case, emerged from the bloodspattered washroom with scratches on his face and, before escaping on an elevator, calmly told a cluster of witnesses, ''You'd better call the police.'' Detectives said robbery had been the apparent motive of the killer, who fled with an unknown sum of cash. The empty wallet of one victim was found on the washroom floor. The second victim's wallet was not touched, the police said.

The bitter competition in selling low-tar cigarettes has broken out into a dispute among the big tobacco companies, with charges and countercharges of unfair marketing practices. In the latest development, the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation has complained to the Federal Trade Commission that three of its competitors - American Brands Inc., Philip Morris USA and R.J. Reynolds Industries - are, in effect, engaging in deceptive advertising, promoting a very low-tar product, packaged in a fliptop box, while also making available a look-alike, higher-tar product that is sold in a soft package. All three strongly deny the charges and R.J. Reynolds has accused Brown & Williamson of unfair tactics in marketing its own low-tar Barclay brand, by finding a way to fool Federal tar-testing equipment. The commission, which has scheduled a closed hearing on the Barclay matter on Wednesday, may decide to alter its entire testing procedure.

''I've spoken with Charles, and he's absolutely over the moon.'' - Earl Spencer, grandfather of the royal baby. (A1:2.)