What was going on when I was born?

The first cheers of the current showing season echoed at the Jacquemart-Andre museum this morning when Emanuel Ungaro introduced his fall and winter fashion collection and seemingly could do no wrong. The enthusiastic audience included such people as Marie-Helene de Rothschild and the Americans Lynn Wyatt and Mildred Hilson, who have watched the designer's star rise in the last few years. The rounds of applause began with his first styles, suits with a mannish but soft look in different shades of gray. Black and white knitted tunics over short skirts and knee-baring dresses in the same graphic patterns brought another burst of applause; so did the short bubble skirts for evening in black velvet with lacy camisole tops. In fact, as varied as the designer's styles were, each segment obviously was appreciated, the evening clothes as well as the daytime numbers, the long as well as the short. Success in fashion tends to beget success. Knowing that last season's styles worked for them, Ungaro fans trusted his next step.

The apparent suicide last month of an Italian financier known as ''God's banker,'' who was found hanged beneath London's Blackfriars Bridge, has added to the mystery of a major Italian financial scandal in which the Vatican appears heavily involved. The cost to the Roman Catholic Church could amount to several hundred million dollars. The scandal centers on some $1.4 billion in unsecured loans made in Latin America by Banco Ambrosiano, Italy's largest privately owned banking group, and endorsed by the Vatican bank. It is sending shock waves through the world of international finance and raising questions about current efforts to regulate the foreign operations of multinational banks. Unusual Outside Inquiry It has also strained Italy's relations with the Vatican, an autonomous governing unit in Rome. Under pressure from the Italian Government and concerned church leaders, Pope John Paul II has ordered an unusual outside investigation into the Vatican's finances by three Roman Catholic lay bankers. But the Italian Government wants the Vatican to accept a measure of financial responsibility for Ambrosiano's expected losses.

-------------------------------------------------------------------- Robert Farrar Capon is an Episcopal priest, author and food writer whose latest book is ''Between Noon and Three'' (Harper & Row). By ROBERT FARRAR CAPON IT is the ultimate kitchen gadget. It serves as a juicer for lemons, oranges and grapefruit and as a combination seed-remover and pulp-crusher for tomatoes. It functions as a bowl scraper, an egg separator and a remover of unwelcome particles - the stray bit of eggshell, the odd grain of black rice - from mixing bowl or saucepan. It is a thermometer capable of gauging temperatures up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. It is a measuring device for dry ingredients in amounts from one tablespoon down to one-eighth teaspoon or less and for whatever liquids may be called for in the cooking of grains and stocks. It can be used as tongs for removing hot cup custards from the oven, as a mixer of water into pastry dough and as a kneader of bread.

''This was done in protest against our government's permitting the Soviets to occupy a residence in Glen Cove, tax free, and turning it against our national interests.'' - Mayor Alan M. Parente of Glen Cove, L.I., on the city's banning Soviet diplomats from its recreation sites. (A1:4.)

Prescott Bush Jr., stunning both his supporters and his opponents, abruptly withdrew today from the race against Lowell P. Weicker Jr. for the Republican nomination for the United States Senate. Mr. Bush, the brother of the Vice President, said he believed he could have beaten Mr. Weicker, the two-term incumbent, in a Republican primary election on Sept. 7. But in diverting money and effort to win the primary, he said, he would risk losing the Senate seat in the November general election to Representative Toby Moffett, the Democratic candidate. To win the primary and lose the general election, Mr. Bush said, ''would be a hollow situation.'' Review Changed His Mind Mr. Bush said that he had awakened this morning prepared to run in a primary but that a review of what he called ''the logistics of the whole thing'' persuaded him to withdraw in the interest of party unity.

AIRLINES TO SEEK 5% FARE RISES GENEVA, July 27 (UPI) - Officials of 60 airlines, many of them struggling to avert economic collapse, agreed today to press for average fare increases of 5 percent on most international routes to help offset growing financial losses. The airline officials, including 20 chief executives, took their action at a two-day session of the International Air Transport Association, which represents 117 carriers. The fare increases would apply to the busy trans-Atlantic and European routes, as well as to routes across the Pacific and in the Far East and Middle East. They would not apply to flights to Japan, within and between North and South America, and to most African points, said Roy Watts, chairman of the association's fare-setting conference.

Despite a request from the State Department that it not meddle in foreign affairs, the City Council of Glen Cove voted 6 to 1 late this afternoon to continue to bar Soviet diplomats from using the city's golf courses, tennis courts and beaches. ''This was done in protest against our Government's permitting the Soviets to occupy a residence in Glen Cove, tax-free, and turning it against our national interests,'' said Mayor Alan M. Parente, who voted with the majority. The Council had voted last May to refuse to give the Russians city recreational passes after Federal officials said the Russians had installed equipment in Killenworth, a 37-acre estate here with a 49-room mansion, that enabled them to eavesdrop on telephone calls and other communications related to Long Island's defense and high-technology industries. 'Our Way of Protesting' ''We were all surprised by the amount of sophisticated equipment the Russians had installed in the mansion,'' said the Mayor. ''This was our way of protesting, and so far the State Department has failed to show us that our action jeopardizes the lives of American diplomats in the Soviet Union.''

GOLDEN peaches, nectarines with a blush of red on their cheeks and mahogany red cherries are beckoning from the fruit stands, just as they do every summer. The buyer, recalling taste sensations from summers past, tries a bite, then another, then a third - and is disappointed. The fruit looks good, but those looks have been deceiving. One bite into a perfectly ripened, deep purple Laroda plum, however, or an intensely colored West Side cantaloupe from California, both of which are in the stores now, have provided ample compensation for those other disappointments. Each summer, fruit fanciers wait expectantly for their favorites to appear in the stores, from the delicate red raspberries that never taste better than when topped with creme fraiche to fiery red watermelons, as much a part of a cookout as hamburgers. Some years every bite is a delight. In others, no amount of money will provide a good piece of fruit.

The Congressional Budget Office issued a new economic forecast that is more pessimistic than the Reagan Administration's. It said annual budget deficits would range from $140 billion to $160 billion over the next three fiscal years. (Page D1.) President Reagan may try to restore some arms spending cuts, according to officials, by using his original arms spending projections in a midyear economic report due this week rather than those approved by Congress last month. (A1.)

President Reagan does not feel bound by the ceilings on military spending for 1984 and beyond that were set by Congress last month with the White House's blessing, Administration officials said today. In a step likely to hurt his relations with his Republican allies, Mr. Reagan was said to be planning to use his midyear economic report, due later this week, to signal an intention to seek higher levels of military spending. Last month, after a long struggle with a Congress intent on reducing the Federal deficit, Mr. Reagan endorsed a budget resolution calling for $30 billion less in military spending than he had proposed for the fiscal years 1983 to 1985. An Administration official said today that Mr. Reagan had decided, in effect, that his Administration should not have to adhere to the $23 billion in cuts that affect 1984 and 1985.

Amid heavy lobbying, the House Judiciary Committee is considering legislation that would extend the life of patents to compensate drug and chemical companies for delays caused by compliance with Federal health and safety regulations. The Senate has already passed such a bill, and if the legislation is enacted, it would, according to patent attorneys, represent one of the more significant changes in the history of American patent law. The duration of patent protection has not been changed since 1861, when Congress set a period of 17 years. 'Restores' Lost Years Proponents of the legislation, including manufacturers of brandname prescription drugs and the American Medical Association, contend that it merely ''restores'' years lost from the life of a patent as a result of safety testing required by the Government.

Joseph M. Margiotta, the Republican Party chairman of Nassau County, lost an appeal yesterday to overturn his conviction for fraud and extortion involving insurance kickbacks for political associates. Mr. Margiotta, one of the state's most powerful politicians, has been sentenced to two years in prison. But he remains free and retains his party position while appealing the case. His conviction was affirmed yesterday by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. A spokesman for Mr. Margiotta said his lawyers wanted to withhold any comment until they could study the court decision.