What was going on when I was born?

From Babbitt and Biwabik on the east, through Virginia, Mountain Iron and Hibbing, to Calumet and Grand Rapids on the west, a depression has fastenened upon the Iron Range and is holding on like a dog to a bone. Perhaps 11,000 of 12,100 miners are laid off; seven of the range's eight taconite mine operations are closed, and the one left operating, at Eveleth, is on a reduced schedule. In city after city across the range, an area in northern Minnesota that is steeped in the lore of mines, miners and machines, unemployment is enormous. It is far greater than the national rate on the Iron Range, which provided the basic raw material, iron ore, that in large part fueled America's industrial growth.

The nation's rate of unemployment in July rose three-tenths of a percentage point to a postwar record of 9.8 percent of the labor force, the Department of Labor reported today. A White House spokesman said the sharp rise last month, coming after the rate had held at 9.5 percent in May and June, did not conflict with the Reagan Administration's assertions that the recession had reached the bottom. But it evoked angry criticism of the Reagan economic program from Democratic Congressmen and from heads of some large labor unions, who accused the President of clinging to policies that were increasing hardships among working people. 360,000 More Unemployed The number of people working held steady at 99,732,000 last month, partly as a result of an increase in the number of service jobs. But 360,000 more people were unemployed than in June because of an increase in the number of people entering the labor force, bringing to 10,790,000 the number of those without jobs and still looking for work.

Governor Kean today signed legislation that permits the death sentence for certain types of murder and asked the State Legislature for a measure that would prescribe lethal injection as the method of execution. At a news conference after he signed the bill in the privacy of his office, Mr. Kean described lethal injection as ''the most humane form'' of capital punishment. The death penalty cannot be carried out in the state until the additional legislation specifies the manner of execution. ''This is a terrible, serious step,'' Mr. Kean said in signing the bill, ''but it is necessary and emphasizes the seriousness of the crime problem that faces our country and our state. People must know if they take a life, they may have to forfeit theirs in return.''

The Gulf Oil Corporation yesterday gave up its campaign to acquire the Cities Service Company for $5.1 billion, citing antitrust objections from the Federal Trade Commission as the principal reason. Gulf's retreat signified another failure of one major oil company to purchase another in the face of antitrust objections that such mergers diminish competition in retail markets. The The stock market fell 11.51 points, to 784.34, a 27-month low. Page 33. Mobil Oil Corporation, the nation's second-biggest oil company, has been thwarted twice in the last year because of such antitrust problems.

When the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington presented a program of Kabuki theater in 1979, the houses were almost half empty. When the Grand Kabuki played there this summer, however, performances were sold out, as they were at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. A few years back, the hot names in fashion and design were European or American. But Tokyo has emerged as a design capital, and Japanese designers are sharing fashion headlines with trendsetters in Paris, Milan and New York. And not so long ago, it took patience and dedication for the aficionado to First of two articles find Japanese films. But this year New York seems like a summer festival of Japanese movies, with three series and two commercial films on Japanese themes playing.

United States officials stressed today that despite reports of progress in talks on a Palestinian withdrawal from Lebanon, the reluctance of Arab governments to accept substantial numbers of guerrillas remained a critical problem. Although officials said that full agreement on the withdrawal of Palestine Liberation Organization forces could be reached ''within a week,'' three immediate problems remained to be resolved. These include the timing of the withdrawal of 6,000 Palestinian guerrillas trapped in west Beirut. Another is the final destination of the guerrillas. The third problem is the question of assurances of the maintenance of a cease-fire.

The police arrested a founder of the Soviet Union's only independent peace group today and put him in a psychiatric hospital against his will, fellow group members reported.

A national congress of China's Communist Party, the first in five years, will convene Sept. 1, the party announced today. The Central Committee said in a communique that it had adopted a report and a new draft constitution for the party for submission to the congress.

Authorities said that a leftist group, the Lorenzo Salazar Command, took responsibility today for the bombing of three United States companies here Wednesday night.

It is not only the White House but, paradoxically, the supporters of the nuclear freeze movement who are calling the House vote Thursday night a victory. The House rejected a resolution calling for an immediate freeze in Soviet and American nuclear weapons by voting, 204 to 202, for an Administration-backed measure that calls for reductions in strategic weapons first, and then a freeze. The action gave the White House an important vote of confidence in President Reagan's arms-reduction proposal, which is being negotiated with the Soviet Union in Geneva. But since the Administration won by such a small margin, those who in six months brought the issue from the nation's households to the House floor are interpreting the vote as a measure of the strength for their campaign to freeze Soviet and American nuclear arsenals.

The Chinese tennis star whose defection in California last month touched off protests by Peking may have sought asylum because she had come under political attack in China for being too Westernized and bourgeois. According to tennis players from Taiwan who talked with the Chinese star, Hu Na, 19 years old, she complained that when she returned from several earlier tours abroad, she had been forced to undergo selfcriticism sessions. In these meetings, which lasted several hours, Miss Hu said she was criticized for being too carefree and for wearing her long hair loose. Most Chinese women with long hair keep it in braids.

Three members of the banned African National Congress were sentenced to death today after being convicted of high treason and murder.