What was going on when I was born?

Although the arrest of Japanese businessmen by the Federal Bureau of Investigation this week set off a furor, the acquisition of trade secrets by legal and illegal means has always been part of doing business in Silicon Valley, the center of the American electronics industry. In the pressure cooker atmosphere of this area, where product life cycles are rarely more than two years, success or failure can turn on the difference of a few weeks in product introduction dates. Add to that a clannish atmosphere in which most executives have at one time worked with one another, a lack of public scrutiny until recent years and an endlessly migrating middle management and technical staff, and all the ingredients are in place for industrial intelligence, and at times espionage. What seems to distinguish the Japa- Mitsubishi pulled back from its denial that it had conspired to steal information from I.B.M. Page D3. nese case, according to Silicon Valley executives, is the size of the payments, involving hundreds of thousands of dollars, for International Business Machines computer secrets, bought via Glenmar Associates, an F.B.I. front that acted as a consulting firm. Also unusual were the participation of Federal law enforcement authorities and the fact that it took place in the ''systems'' business rather than in computer parts, such as semiconductors.

Leaders of the fight for an equal rights amendment officially conceded defeat today. But they vowed to continue the struggle for equality of women by electing their backers to state legislatures and by suing corporations that practice sexual discrimination. ''We've just begun to fight,'' said Eleanor Smeal, the president of the National Organization for Women, the group that spearheaded the Equal Rights Amendment Countdown Campaign, which has now ended in defeat. In the 10 years since Congress passed the proposed constitutional amendment to forbid discrimination on the basis of sex, it has been ratified by 35 states, three short of the three-fourths it needed to become part of the Constitution.

THE New York Shakespeare Festival gets under way tonight at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, not with Shakespeare but with his French counterpart, Moliere. And not with one of Moliere's familiar comedies either, but with ''Don Juan.'' To this day, it remains one of the least known and least performed of his major works. Then why ''Don Juan'' in Central Park? ''Moliere has always been a people's playwright, and the average person's association with Don Juan is romantic or psychological,'' explained Joseph Papp, the festival's producer. ''This play explores his character in a unique way.'' In 27 years of free theater in the park, this opening marks Moliere's first appearance. The production chosen by Mr. Papp is the staging done last year by Richard Foreman at the Tyrone Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.

AFICIONADOS of the Kool Jazz Festival have come to expect star performers, and this year's edition is no exception. Benny Goodman, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Buddy Rich, Joe Williams and Mel Torme are just some of the major artists who will appear in the first weekend of the festival, which begins a 10-day run in New York this evening. But along with these regulars, the first three days of the festival will highlight performers for whom a jazz festival appearance is unusual - Eileen Farrell, the opera singer, Mabel Mercer, the peerless cabaret singer, Mitch Miller, the conductor and arranger, and Harvey Phillips, the classical tuba player. There will even be musicians from Senegal, India and Turkey. The first official concert of the festival will take place at 5 P.M. today, when Art Hodes gives a piano recital in the Forum Room of the New York Sheraton. The 77-year-old Mr. Hodes, who was born in Russia, began playing his strongly bluesoriented piano style in Chicago in the mid-1920's. He was part of the group of young Chicago musicians that included Gene Krupa, Bud Freeman, Muggsy Spanier and Frank Teschemacher, who built the explosive style that became identified as ''Chicago Jazz.''

Precinct 23 One Neighborhood Battles Crime A series of articles appearing periodically. By M.A. FARBER To the 126 officers of the 23d Precinct, membership in what they call the ''book of the month club'' is a serious matter. It can affect the officers' assignments, job evaluations, relations with their superiors and the ease with which they can get such favors as an unscheduled day off. More than is realized -and more than many officers would like - the Police Department is setting standards for performance that center on an officer's success with his summons book. The frantic multimillion-dollar world of parking summonses has become an increasingly competitive scramble for cars to ticket, a world in which many officers say they regard the brown-uniformed traffic agent as their ''enemy No. 1.'' The pressure to produce summonses has a direct impact, not only on the pocketbooks of thousands of New Yorkers, but also on the expenditure of police manpower.

Standard Oil (Ohio) raised the price of oil from Alaska's North Slope. Sohio, which produces 53 percent of Prudhoe Bay oil, would not disclose the size of the increase, but industry sources said it was $2 a barrel to refiners on the West Coast and $3 a barrel on the Gulf Coast. Analysts said the move indicated domestic crude prices are firming. Another North Slope producer, Atlantic Richfield, said it was reviewing its prices but hasn't yet taken any action. (Page D1.) Shearson/American Express said it would acquire Balcor, a large national real estate management and mortgage banking company, for up to $103 million. (D1.)

The principal Lebanese ally of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Beirut said today, ''The P.L.O. as it used to be in Lebanon is finished.'' With the Palestinians trapped in western Beirut and Israeli jets continuing to attack their encampments, that assessment was made by Walid Jumblat, who heads the National Movement, a coalition of Moslem militias and leftist groups. As the main leftist Moslem spokesman, Mr. Jumblat has represented one of the two major contending Lebanese forces. The other is made up of the Christian militias.

The Fair at Rhinebeck, billed as the largest craft market anywhere, will be held today through Sunday, 10 A.M. to 6 P.M., at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds. This is the 17th year of the event, formerly called the Northeast Craft Fair. Glass, ceramics, jewelry, leather, handmade paper and other work by more than 580 artisans will be offered. There will be refreshment stands and picnic tables; parking is free. The grounds are on Route 9 just south of Red Hook, N.Y., two hours from Manhattan. A courtesy car goes to and from the fair from the nearby Rhinebeck train station. Admission is $4 (free for under-12's). Information: (914) 255-0039. EAST VILLAGE BECKETT Lying on a rocker in the dark, Frederick Neumann will deliver what he describes as a ''soliloquy in three voices'' -part of Samuel Beckett's ''Company,'' a semiautobiographical work published in 1979. Mr. Neumann is a founding member of the Mabou Mines company, which is presenting his 40-minute solo appearance as a work in progress tonight, tomorrow and Sunday at 7 P.M. at P.S. 122, a performance space at First Avenue and Ninth Street. Tickets are $3. No reservations.

Hundreds of Americans, Western Europeans and Lebanese with American immigration papers were evacuated by a transport ship of the Sixth Fleet today, just hours after the American Embassy in western Beirut closed down. Two large American Navy landing craft ferried the evacuees from the docks of the port of this Christian-controlled harbor 15 miles north of Beirut. The craft took them out to sea, where the Navy transport Nashville waited in the Mediterranean haze to sail them to Cyprus. (In a separate operation, according to The Associated Press, the British merchant vessel Royal Prince also docked at Junieh to pick up evacuees.)

Evangeline Gouletas-Carey and other members of a State Nutrition Watch Committee toured a hospital as well as food programs in Harlem and the South Bronx yesterday. After the tour, the committee, created by Governor Carey six months ago, released its final report. Among its findings was that a third of the million New Yorkers eligible for food stamps had not applied for them because they were not familiar with the welfare system. And it found that there had been the sudden appearance of a new group of people needing food assistance, those recently unemployed because of the recession. New to poverty, these people are either unaware of what help is available or too embarrassed to obtain it.

Leaders of black and Puerto Rican groups said today that parts of a Federal ruling designed to insure fairness in political representation to racial minorities in New York might actually reduce it. Their comments came in response to a Justice Department ruling on Tuesday invalidating the state's plan to redraw Congressional, State Senate and Assembly district lines. While they agreed with the broad aims of the department's efforts on minority representation, they took issue with portions of the ruling. At a news conference here today, Assemblyman Albert Vann, the chairman of the Legislature's Black and Puerto Rican Caucus, said that unless districts had minority populations of 80 percent or more, they might not elect minority candidates.

City Council President Carol Bellamy announced yesterday that the city would provide $2 million in the 1983 budget to replace some of the polyvinyl chloride tubing in the subway system. The plastic tubing, which releases toxic fumes when burned, aroused a controversy last winter after it was installed at 58 Manhattan subway stations. Health authorities have warned that fumes from polyvinyl chloride, or PVC., can cause serious injury or death in the event of fire.