What was going on when I was born?

In a match laden with compassion between the players, Martina Navratilova, the most dominating woman in tennis this year, was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the United States Open championships yesterday by Pam Shriver, her doubles partner. The 1-6, 7-6, 6-2 defeat was only the second for the top-seeded Miss Navratilova in 70 matches this year, and ended a 41-match winning streak. It also ended her chances of attaining the Grand Slam, which comprises the French, Wimbledon, United States and Australian titles. She had previously won the French and Wimbledon. Throughout the 1-hour-36-minute match, Miss Navratilova had to contend not only with the 6-foot Miss Shriver's long reach, but also with a lingering virus that she said had left her drained in the final set.

The Office of Management and Budget agreed today to accept a proposal by Federal bank regulators that would require commercial banks to disclose more detailed information about bad loans and the banks' financial condition. William M. Issac, the chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, said his agency and the budget office had reached a compromise on the disclosure dispute: The budget office, backing away from an earlier plan to veto the rules, will now withhold the veto in return for an agreement by the bank regulators to delay putting the new rules into effect for three months. The new reporting requirements were issued last month by the interagency Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, a panel of bank regulators that has been seeking since June to expand bankreporting requirements. The agencies redoubled their efforts to toughen disclosure rules following the collapse of the Penn Square Bank in Oklahoma.

International Israel has begun to press Lebanon to move toward negotiating a formal peace treaty to help guarantee the security of its northern border. Otherwise, it is believed, Israel will insist that southern Lebanon be controlled by a pro-Israeli Christian militia, possibly supported by an Israeli military presence, at least in the form of periodic patrols. (Page A1, Column 6.) Philip C. Habib was honored with the Medal of Freedom. President Reagan presented the nation's highest civilian honor to his special Middle East envoy for ''skillful diplomacy'' in bringing about a cease-fire in Lebanon and ending the siege of Beirut. (A10:4-6.)

The threatened furlough of 19,000 employees of the Internal Revenue Service was averted today as two Senate Republican committee leaders reluctantly approved a transfer of funds in the Treasury Department. Two House Democratic committee leaders approved the transfer earlier in the day and that put pressure on the two Republicans to drop their opposition and agree. Pleas by Treasury Secretary Donald T. Regan were credited with helping to change the minds of the Republican leaders in time to avoid having the furloughs go into effect this afternoon. ''There will not be any furloughs,'' said Charles Powers, a spokesman for the Treasury Department. ''The I.R.S. is going to send Mailgrams to its employes, and we also hope that they get the information from the media.''

The Rockland County District Attorney moved yesterday to drop all charges against Anthony N. LaBorde, one of eight defendants in the Brink's armored-car robbery last Oct. 20 in which two policemen and a Brink's guard were killed. The prosecutor, Kenneth Gribetz, disclosed in court papers that three of the six witnesses who had identified Mr. LaBorde from photographs as being at the scene of the crime failed to pick him out of a lineup last June 15. The remaining witnesses, the prosecutor said, now harbor doubts about their identification of Mr. LaBorde.

TANS are fading fast, sandals are being replaced by pumps and seersucker suits have been sent to the cleaners for the last time this year. In short, it is autumn in New York and the relative informality of summer is giving way once again to the usual frenetic pace with the return of city dwellers from vacations and summer retreats. In cooler weather the family cook is expected to put something more substantial on the table. But the amount of time that must be devoted to preparing workday dinners does not increase with the arrival of fall; on the contrary, it probably diminishes. Those responsible for the evening meal might want to consider using some weekend time to get ahead. Cooking ahead for a week is not a large-scale operation. Nor are many of these frozen dishes designed to sit in the freezer for months or even weeks, though some of them certainly can. They are to be used within a week of preparation. Because of their short stay in the freezer, unsauced main dishes such as chicken breasts stuffed with goat cheese can be frozen without any appreciable reduction in flavor or quality.

Robert R. Frederick, an executive vice president and a career employee of the General Electric Company, yesterday was named president and chief operating officer of the RCA Corporation and the likely successor to Thornton F. Bradshaw, chairman and chief executive. Mr. Frederick, who fills a vacancy that has existed since June 1980, will play an instrumental role in trying to revive the electronics and communications company. ''I think Mr. Frederick will probably take over when ready,'' Mr. Bradshaw said in an interview. Mr. Bradshaw came to RCA from the Atlantic Richfield Company in July 1981 after the previous chairman, Edgar H. Griffiths, resigned. He has been viewed as somewhat of a caretaker, trying to correct RCA's management problems and pave the way for his successor.

A plan to introduce extensive commercial logging for the first time in a state park is stirring a major battle in the remote and densely forested Allegany State Park here. The state says the logging, or ''timber management,'' is needed because the trees in the 65,000-acre park are getting old and should be cut to make room for new growth. ''The forest is not reproducing itself,'' Orin Lehman, the State Parks Commissioner, said in an interview. ''It's just growing old. It will die out. Old trees are like old people. They're subject to disease and parasites.''

In an unusual alliance, the United Technologies Corporation joined the Martin Marietta Corporation yesterday in a bid to take over the Bendix Corporation and divide its assets between them. Under an agreement reached by the two corporate giants, if either United or Martin Marietta won Bendix, the victor would sell off some of the Bendix divisions to the other.United would probably obtain Bendix's automotive and industrial divisions and Martin Marietta would come away with most of the aerospace and electronics operations. Wall Street professionals immediately questioned the new alliance, noting that United's offer carried contingencies that made it possible for the huge conglomerate to back out. Other Wall Street analysts familiar with United contended, on the other hand, that Harry J. Gray, United's 63-year-old chairman, who built his company through acquisitions, was not a man to start a takeover battle he was not prepared to finish.

There is a clash of ideas going on here in the Democratic Congressional primary that harks back to the Vietnam War, encompasses El Salvador and then dwells on the present nuclear-freeze debate. The two protagonists, Representative Samuel S. Stratton, an unrepentant hawk on Vietnam and the most influential member of the House Armed Services Committee, and his challenger, John G. Dow, a former Congressman who was one of the earliest doves, debate on local television and radio with repartee like this: Mr. Dow: ''He is such an extremist in promoting the belligerence between the United States and Russia that if it continues I think we're all going to be blown to bits.'' Mr. Stratton: ''The only thing I'm trying to do is make sure we in the United States have a defense to deter the massive buildup of the Soviet Union. It is the most extreme buildup. It outpasses the buildup of Hitler in the early 30's.''

Mayor Koch announced yesterday that an experimental program in which auxiliary police officers patrol subway stations was being made permanent and that the number of such auxiliaries had grown since January from 12 to 1,500 volunteers. William L. McKechnie, president of the Transit Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, called the move ''irresponsible'' and said that the volunteers' lack of adequate training and equipment jeopardized the public safety. While there may be 1,500 enrolled in the program, he said, the number patrolling the subways at any given time is less than 10 percent of that figure.

Finance ministers and commercial bankers, convening here for the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund, expressed relief today that the United States economy finally appears to be turning up. ''The recent easing of U.S. interest rates could become a major turning point'' in the world economic situation, Manfred Lahnstein, West Germany's Finance Minister, told the conference, which was in its second day. Faster economic growth in America helps other countries chiefly through the effects of trade. As the world's biggest importer, the United States has a crucial role in the economies of many developing countries. By importing more oil from Mexico, for example, America is easing that country's mountainous debt burden.