What was going on when I was born?

Governor Carey sharply attacked the 205th session of the State Legislature, which closed yesterday, as focusing on election year politics instead of major state problems. ''Unfortunately,'' Mr. Carey said, ''the 1982 legislative session will be remembered less for its accomplishments than for what was not done - for the issues not addressed, the problems not confronted and the fiscal responsibility requisite but not forthcoming.'' ''The Legislature,'' Mr. Carey continued, ''ignored the most important structural reforms in government and long-range needs of the state, its local governments, its economy and its citizens, instead focusing primarily on its short-sighted election year budget and the redrawing of district lines.'' Anderson Reacts In turn, the leader of the Senate's Republican majority, Warren M. Anderson, criticized Mr. Carey, arguing that ''Republican legislators aggressively assumed the leadership role that all too often was shunned by the Governor.''

The Israeli Cabinet decided today to reject any peace proposal that would leave the Palestine Liberation Organization with a political or organizational presence in Lebanon. In a communique issued after discussions of the continuing political negotiations in Beirut, the Cabinet declared: ''The Government of Israel categorically rejects any proposal for any sort of presence - political, organizational or 'token' military - of the terrorists in Lebanon. All of them, without exception, must leave Lebanon.'' The statement did not represent a change in Israel's position, but was apparently a response to reports here that the P.L.O. had offered to withdraw some of its fighters if it were permitted to retain a political office and a unit in the Lebanese army. It was not possible to confirm these reports.

It has been a decade or so since the Sun Belt, that vast, warm-weather half of the country sweeping from Florida to southern California, began seriously to challenge the dominant economic and political power of the Northeast and Middle West. The spectacular population growth and bright new prosperity of the nation's southern tier startled the rest of the country in the 1970's, exciting wonder and envy. Today, it seems by some measures that the region has prevailed. But the Sun Belt is finding that maturity can bring symptoms of ill health and that its prospects are not unlimited after all. For as the region inherits much of the power of the North, it is also inheriting a fuller measure of the social, economic and environmental woes, including crime, congestion, pollution and physical decay, that have long bedeviled Northern cities. Lag in Per Capita Wealth Furthermore, most of the Sun Belt has yet to catch up with the nation as a whole in per capita wealth. A greater share of its people continue to live in poverty than in the country at large. Some analysts are even beginning to speculate that the Sun Belt will never overtake the Northeast in such important activities as finance and culture. They also point out that finite natural resources, particularly water, are threatening to limit the growth of many Sun Belt states.

The space shuttle Columbia, completing its fourth and final test flight and now ready to haul the orbital freight of the future, soared out of a clear blue sky and landed smoothly here today to the cheers of a flag-waving Independence Day crowd led by President Reagan. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced afterward that the re-usable winged spaceplane, after 10 years of development and nine million miles of orbital testing, had passed its major tests and could begin regular cargo runs into and back from space. The Columbia's next flight is scheduled for November, when it is to deliver two communications satellites into orbit. After seven days of orbiting, the astronauts, Capt. Thomas K. Mattingly 2d of the Navy and Henry W. Hartsfield Jr., steered the winged spaceship to a touchdown at 12:10 P.M. Eastern daylight time. It was the Columbia's first landing on a concrete runway, and all went well.

The Polish military Government is urging Pope John Paul II to cancel or at least postpone his planned visit to Poland next month, according to Roman Catholic and other Western diplomatic sources. The Polish authorities are understood to have told the Pope's personal envoy, Archbishop Luigi Poggi, who returned to Rome last week, that conditions would not be right for a papal visit next month. They apparently hope that the Pope will take the initiative and cancel the visit himself, saving them from an embarrassing decision to refuse him entry to his native land. Archbishop Jozef Glemp, the Polish Primate, is due to fly to Rome Monday, and sources say a final Vatican decision on the Pope's visit is likely to be made during his two-week stay there.

President Antonio Guzman, who was scheduled to leave office next month, died today from a gunshot wound in the head. The Dominican Republic's Government said Mr. Guzman's pistol had accidentally discharged, fatally wounding him. Privately, high Government officials said the 71-year-old President had committed suicide in the bathroom of his office, but they offered no explanation of why he might have killed himself.

Israeli troops tightened their siege of west Beirut today, preventing food, water and fuel from entering the encircled stronghold of the Palestine Liberation Organization. While Israeli ground troops blocked almost all traffic into west Beirut, Israeli tanks entrenched in the hillside village of Hadath, overlooking the capital, fired at building and apartment complexes in the Palestinian neighborhoods of Lailake and Burj al-Brajneh. Reporters who watched the Israeli bombardment said the return fire from the guerrillas hidden inside was sporadic. The intensified Israeli pressure on west Beirut, where about 6,000 Palestinian guerrillas are trapped along with 500,000 civilians, came as the Israeli Government rejected a formal offer by the P.L.O. to the Lebanese Government to transfer its headquarters and some of its fighters out of Lebanon. The offer was relayed to Israel by Philip C. Habib, the special American envoy.

A 17-day hunt by hundreds of armed British policemen ended today when Barry Prudom, suspected of three killings, was shot dead outside the Yorkshire town of Malton. The search, which had become a national preoccupation, began on June 17 with the shooting of a police officer in Harrogate.

More than 1,000 black miners refused to work and left the giant West Driefontein gold mine for home today after 150 of their co-workers were dismissed in connection with three days of rioting, a mine spokesman said. The spokesman said the remaining workers had reported for the evening shift and ''everything was still normal.''

A West German prosecutor investigating members of the Cabinet suspected of involvement in a political bribery case has confiscated a list of 40 names of major political leaders from all three principal parties, the news magazine Der Spiegel said today. The politicians are said to have taken contributions in return for business favors.

The State Department renewed efforts over the weekend to prevent a dispute concerning the presence of Cuban soldiers in Angola from endangering negotiations, scheduled to start in New York on Tuesday, that are intended to end the conflict in South-West Africa. Robert Cabelly, an assistant to Chester A. Crocker, the Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, arrived in Luanda Saturday for previously unannounced talks with representatives of the South-West Africa People's Organization, the Soviet-armed insurgent group battling South Africa's disputed control of South-West Africa, also known as Namibia. The discussions followed talks in Washington in June between Mr. Crocker and South African officials. Western sources said the Luanda talks were designed to prevent a further souring of the atmosphere after public exchanges between South Africa and the insurgents over what is termed ''linkage'' by the United States and South Africa of the Namibian issue with a withdrawal of the 15,000 to 20,000 Cuban soldiers stationed in Angola.

Acting Archbishop Arturo Rivera Damas said today that Pope John Paul II would like to visit El Salvador next year, but he did not say if the Pope had reached a decision on the trip. The Archbishop made the announcement during a homily here, his first since returning from a three-week trip to Western Europe that included a visit to the Vatican.