What was going on when I was born?

Clashes between Justice Department officials and a dispute involving the House Ethics Committee marked weeks of negotiations that ended in the resignation and guilty pleas of Representative Frederick W. Richmond of Brooklyn, according to Federal lawenforcement officials and others involved in the negotiations. One key dispute concerned the question of whether Mr. Richmond should have been forced to resign - an issue that became academic because he offered to step down. The Federal officials and one of Mr. Richmond's lawyers said the United States Attorney in Brooklyn had first arranged, in early August, for Mr. Richmond to dispose of a range of criminal allegations by resigning and pleading guilty to a single charge. That charge, of filing a false tax statement, would have carried a maximum three-year prison sentence.

Four years after the start of legalized gambling and with nine casinos in operation, the gaming industry is coming back from a losing season and shows promise of making Atlantic City the nation's gambling capital by the end of the decade. This summer, the crowds heading into the casinos are larger than ever. The recession, which has slowed growth in Las Vegas for the first time in 25 years, actually seems to have been good for Atlantic City, bringing in vacationers who are loath to pay the air fare to Nevada but evidently eager to risk their money closer to home. Last month was the best yet, with total gambling revenues of $159.2 million, or $5.1 million a day. Last year, the casinos had $1.1 billion in gambling revenues - ''winnings,'' in the industry term for the amount of money gambled and lost by players at gaming tables and slot machines. Figures are less precise for Nevada, but analysts who follow the industry estimate that the Las Vegas area, with legalized gambling for 51 years and with 132 casinos, had gambling revenues of approximately $1.7 billion last year.

Citizens' crime-watching groups, scattered and isolated 10 years ago, have now enlisted more than five million members and are gaining recognition from the police and other experts as a highly effective force against crime. Often operating with direct channels to police departments, the groups patrol their neighborhoods in radio-equipped cars, walk their blocks and scan their apartment complexes, reporting what they see and hear but rarely confronting criminals. Increasingly they are organized on a national basis. ''They give us more eyes and ears -that's the big thing,'' said George W. Rush, a patrolman who responded to a citizen-patrol call here in Lower Merion Township, a section of the Philadelphia area's Main Line. ''Wherever the watches do a good job, you find that they cut crime quite a bit,'' said Ferris Lucas, executive director of the National Sheriffs Association, which began organizing groups nationwide about 10 years ago. The units it sponsors are called Neighborhood Watches.

Phil Simms, the Giants' quarterback, is scheduled to undergo surgery Monday morning that will probably put him out for the season. At best, he will be lost for five or six weeks, and Coach Ray Perkins held out little hope for that. Simms injured his right knee in the first quarter of Saturday night's 22-10 exhibition victory over the Jets at Giants Stadium. Scott Brunner finished the game and completed 10 of 24 passes for 89 yards, with three interceptions and three sacks.

The business climate may be bleak for most people, but these are golden days for Michael Crames, the bankruptcy lawyer who represents the Manville Corporation - and Braniff, White Motors, Brentano's, McLouth Steel, Bobbie Brooks and more than 100 other companies that have filed bankruptcy petitions in the last few years. ''My life changed in 1977 when United Merchants and Manufacturers walked into my office,'' said Mr. Crames, the leading force in the 14-lawyer firm of Levin & Weintraub. ''It consumed my life for almost a year, and then, almost immediately, Food Fair exploded. Since then, it's been one major company after another -and the problem companies have been getting bigger and bigger.'' So has the reputation of Mr. Crames. In a legal specialty that has traditionally been regarded as even less appetizing than divorce work, Mr. Crames has emerged as a national superstar.

The 14-member board of the Martin Marietta Corporation will meet in midtown Manhattan today to decide what to do about what it has so far labeled only as an ''unsolicited'' takeover bid from the Bendix Corporation. In a surprise offer delivered last Wednesday, Bendix offered to buy the big aerospace contractor for $43 a share, or about $1.5 billion. Martin Marietta, however, is expected to resist a takeover by Bendix - and by William M. Agee, Bendix's highly visible chairman. What Martin Marietta will do to keep Bendix at bay should become apparent very soon. Wall Street was rife with rumors last Friday that Martin Marietta might turn the cards on Mr. Agee and make a bid for Bendix.

Two days before national protests called by underground Solidarity leaders, Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski appealed to Poles today to avoid ''excesses and irresponsible demonstrations.'' He warned that violations of martial law ''will not be tolerated.'' Speaking at a graduation ceremony for officers of an armored corps in the western city of Poznan, the Polish leader assailed opposition activists he said had failed to come to their senses since the military takeover. He complained that every step to ease martial law had only met with the fanning of tensions, street disorders, conspiratorial groups and subversive slogans.

A suspect in the killing of the son of a Federal witness has refused to cooperate with authorities in the search for the two other men wanted in the case, law-enforcement officials said yesterday. As the investigation continued, District Attorney Mario Merola of the Bronx said the city's Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation were planning to announce today the creation of a joint task force to foster close cooperation in the investigation. Mr. Merola said the main thrust of the investigation would be to follow the ''many leads'' in the search for the other two suspects in the slaying. Kenneth P. Walton, deputy assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in New York, said the suspect in custody, 67-yearold Salvatore Odierno, had refused to be questioned or to provide any information that might lead authorities to the two other suspects.

King Hussein of Jordan said today that there would be a ''real disaster'' in the Middle East unless movement was made soon toward a solution of the Palestinian problem and a just and durable peace. The King, speaking in an interview here, said he would consider any new American peace initiative that went beyond the terms of the Camp David accords. At the same time, he said he was convinced that the Reagan Administration was ''very concerned'' over recent developments in Lebanon. ''As far as we are concerned, we think that a new initiative, a new process, will have to be born of the need to move rapidly towards the establishment of a just and durable solution,'' the King said, adding that the Camp David process was ''totally unacceptable'' to Jordan.

The prime lending rate may not fall as much as other rates, analysts said. They cited worries in the banking system involving problem loans to nations and companies. (Page D1.) Machine tool orders slid 14 percent in July from June and 44 percent from July of last year, continuing their downward trend. (D1.)

A flight instructor and his student were killed today after a collision with another plane within sight of controllers at the Essex County Airport, airport officials said. The pilot of the second plane made an emergency landing and escaped with minor injuries. One of the wings on the four-seat Cessna 172 in which the two men were flying was torn off by the crash, which occurred under clear skies. The plane dived into a wooded area about one and a half miles from the airport and 75 feet south of a gas station on Route 46 in Fairfield Township.

Continuing a general trend downward, machine tool orders slid 14 percent in July from the month before and 44 percent from July of last year, the National Machine Tool Builders Association reported yesterday. Orders from American and foreign manufacturers fell to $107.75 million in July, from $125.9 million in June and from $192 million in July of 1981, the association said. It added that orders in the January-July period this year plunged nearly 50 percent, to $997.2 million, from nearly $2 billion in the comparable 1981 period.