What was going on when I was born?

Syria announced today, in a policy reversal, that it was now willing to accept all the Palestinian guerrillas from west Beirut that the leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization wanted to send here. Sana, the official Syrian press agency, said the decision came in response to an official request from the P.L.O. The Syrian decision followed by hours a report of an offer by Iraq to accept any of the guerrillas not wanted elsewhere. Obstacle Seems to Wane With the Syrian and Iraqi decisions, the problem of where the guerrillas are to go, long a major obstacle to a settlement of the crisis in Beirut, appeared to be on the way to resolution.

The Legal Aid Society has filed suit to block a Federal order that raises rents for the nation's 3.5 million public housing tenants, including 600,000 in New York City. Mayor Koch denounced the order yesterday as ''unconscionable'' and directed the city's Corporation Counsel to investigate how the city might block the order. Federal officials say they put the order in the mail on July 16. New York City officials say they did not receive it until July 29 and had not taken action sooner because of the time required to read and understand the complex regulations. The order was effective Aug. 1, but it is not yet being enforced in New York City.

New York City may have to increase jail sentences to one year and raise fines to more than $1,000 to get many landlords to comply with a law that requires them to inspect their buildings for loose masonry, the chairman of the City Council Committee on Housing and Buildings said yesterday. The official, Thomas J. Manton, a Queens Democrat, also said the Buildings Department had to be ''more aggressive'' in its enforcement of the law. He said figures supplied by the department showed that 40 percent of the 8,800 buildings under the law had failed to file the required inspection reports.

An Apple II home computer, with programs, was recently advertised in New York for $1,895. That was a reduction from $2,604. In Hong Kong, however, what looks like the same thing sells for as little as $300. The growing demand for home computers has pitted Apple Computer Inc. against Asia's irreverent counterfeiters, who have begun to turn out computers in the equivalent of a garage.

The Justice Department is in the process of seeking an indictment of Representative Frederick W. Richmond on tax charges, according to law-enforcement officials close to the investigation. The United States Attorney in Brooklyn, Edward R. Korman, who has been conducting a Federal grand jury investigation of the Brooklyn Democrat on a variety of matters since the beginning of the year, recommended to the Criminal Division of the Justice Department that the indictment be sought, the officials said. The Justice Department has approved the recommendation, according to the officials. The law-enforcement officials familiar with the investigation of Mr. Richmond would not discuss for the record the recommendation by Mr. Korman or the approval by the Justice Department. They spoke only on condition that their names not be used.

Along a broad expanse of healthy, green lawn beside Del Webb Boulevard here, there are four churches hard by a golf course and a cemetery. It is a tidy, tranquil scene, befitting the nation's most populous retirement village. Tidiness and tranquility, however, are absent 15 miles away in the Phoenix headquarters of Sun City's builder, the Del E. Webb Corporation. For the last year, the diversified company has been selling properties to keep from foundering under a huge debt and high interest rates. It lost $884,000 in the second quarter ended June 30, compared with a $10.8 million gain a year ago, a profit based largely on the sale of the popular Mountain Shadows Resort near Phoenix to the Marriott Corporation. Sales fell by 21 percent, to $84.2 million from $107.1 million a year ago. Del Webb's stock pays no dividend.

International Israel accepted most peace proposals on the siege of Beirut ''in principle,'' but continued to insist that most of the Palestinian fighters trapped there leave before the arrival of any members of an international peacekeeping force. The Israeli Cabinet also said it must receive in advance a ''full list'' of the Arab countries planning to accept the Palestinians and that the numbers leaving must be ''absolutely equivalent to the number of terrorists'' in Beirut, estimated at 6,000 to 9,000. (Page A1, Column 6.) Syria said it was willing to accept all the fighters that leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization wanted to send to Damascus. The reversal of policy came as several other Arab countries were reported to have agreed to accept Palestinians. (A1:4.)

The following dispatch has been altered by Israeli military censorship. JERUSALEM, Aug. 10 (original dateline changed by censor) - The three Palestine Liberation Organization prisoners were handcuffed and wore cloth bags over their heads as they were led by an Israeli officer through the grounds of the military prison (18 words deleted here by censor) in northern Israel. The three were captured in the first weeks of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the Israelis refer to them as ''terrorists,'' a term Israeli officials use for all people they regard as part of the Palestinian guerrilla group. Three Have Little in Common But aside from that, and their headcovers and manacles, the prisoners had little in common. They had joined the guerrilla organization under different circumstances. Each described a different role in the organization. The invasion of Lebanon meant something different to each of them. And each has a different hope for the future.

Just when it looked like the Metropolitan Transportation Authority had all that it could handle - or maybe even more than it could handle - it announced that it would soon be taking over the three commuter rail lines that link New York City and its northern suburbs. For riders on other M.T.A. facilities, such as the subways and the Long Island Rail Road, it seemed absurd that the authority would be the answer to anyone's prayers. But to many of the 180,000 daily commuters on the Harlem, Hudson and New Haven Lines, the news of the takeover was encouraging. ''It's our only hope,'' said Ben Frank, a regular rider on the Harlem Line who has been active in commuter organizations. Yesterday morning Mr. Frank's train from Chappaqua arrived at Grand Central Terminal 20 minutes late. On Monday night, the train was on time, but he had to stand for the entire one-hour trip home.

Frank J. Coppola, convicted in 1978 of beating a Newport News woman to death, was executed in the electric chair here tonight after Chief Justice Warren E. Burger overruled a stay granted earlier today by a Federal appeals court judge. Mr. Coppola, a 38-year-old former policeman, was electrocuted, as he had said he ''adamantly'' wished to be, in the basement of the Richmond State Penitentiary. He was pronounced dead at 11:29 P.M. The 10:30 P.M. decision by Chief Justice Burger, who had met hurriedly with Virginia lawyers at Supreme Court chambers in Washington, was supported by five of the eight other members of the Court whom he polled, a spokesman for the Virginia Attorney General's Office said here. The spokesman, David Hathcock, said that ''our information is that Associate Justices Thurgood Marshall and William Brennan would have granted a stay.'' He said that Justice John Paul Stevens, a former Richmond lawyer, was apparently not part of the minority but ''would have preferred a reply'' by lawyers seeking to postpone the execution.

The American Bar Association has angered many leading tax lawyers who are active members by refusing to oppose what they call an ''outrageous'' tax shelter concept, now before the Supreme Court, that could allow the wealthy to escape taxes on millions of dollars in income. The Board of Governors of the association, now holding its annual convention here, has turned down a request by the association's Section of Taxation to file a brief opposing the tax shelter idea as a threat to the fairness and integrity of the entire income tax system. In a recent newsletter, John S. Nolan, a Washington lawyer who heads the tax section, called this a ''shocking'' example of tolerating ''serious tax avoidance'' for fear of offending wealthy clients who might benefit from similar tax shelters. Tax experts, including Mr. Nolan and Bernard Wolfman, a Harvard Law professor, said the case, called Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Tufts, is very important - indeed, in the words of Matthew J. Zinn, another Washington tax lawyer active in the bar association, ''the most important tax case to come to the Supreme Court in at least 10 years.''

MARK GASTINEAU, a defensive end for the New York Jets football team, may fight off a 250-pound tackle and toss a 200-pound halfback aside to get to an opposing quarterback, but after the game he delicately removes the roll from his hamburger. When the the power forward Maurice Lucas - who was recently traded by the New York Knickerbockers basketball team to the Phoenix Suns - drives past a 6-foot, 8-inch opponent to score, his extra strength, he contends, comes from a glass of carrot or cucumber juice. The standard image of professional athletes may be macho, but their concept of diet is not limited to half a cow and a keg of beer. A number of those interviewed recently said not only that they were interested in what they ate, but also that food played an important part in their preparation for the season and for each game. Many of them have spent considerable time educating themselves about diet and finding out what works best for them.