What was going on when I was born?

A chart yesterday on the election races resulting from Tuesday's primaries included an incorrect picture. It showed John Sears, a former campaign manager for President Reagan, in place of John W. Sears, Republican candidate for Governor of Massachusetts.

''We fully support the Lebanese Government's call for the withdrawal of Israeli forces, which are in clear violation of the cease-fire understanding to which Israel is a party.

In what appeared to be a major victory for the Bendix Corporation, the company announced early today that it had purchased a controlling interest in the Martin Marietta Corporation. The 1 A.M. announcement followed by a few hours a decision by a Federal appeals court in Baltimore to permit Bendix to proceed with its offer to buy 51 percent of Marietta's outstanding stock. Marietta shareholders who had offered their stock to Bendix had until midnight last night to withdraw their shares. Will Take 70% of Shares In a lengthy statement, Bendix said it had purchased all of the shares already tendered to it by Marietta stockholders as of midnight, and that it intended to purchase up to 70 percent of Marietta shares on a first-come, first-served basis if any were offered after that deadline. Based on prior Bendix announcements, the company got an estimated 58 percent of Marietta shares in response to its offer to pay $48 a share for a 51 percent interest.

Bendix was cleared to purchase Martin Marietta's stock after a Federal appeals court overturned a lower court judge's 10-day freeze in the three-way takeover battle involving Bendix, Marietta and United Technologies. (Page D1.) Chrysler and the U.A.W. tentatively agreed on a new contract restoring workers' cost-of-living payments but linking wage increases to the company's profits. The pact, reached at 6 A.M. after nightlong talks, came too late to stop walkouts at five assembly plants. (A1.)

''Women of the Americas: Emerging Perspectives'' is an exhibition of art work by women from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia and the United States. These are artists, according to the show's curators, ''who have achieved prominence without the sterotypical notion of distinctly feminist if separatist art.'' The exhibition is showing at two sites - at the Center for Inter-American Relations, 680 Park Avenue, at 68th Street (noon to 6 P.M., except Monday), and the Kouros Gallery, 831 Madison Avenue, at 69th Street (10 A.M. to 6 P.M., except Sunday and Monday). Admission is free. For more information, call the center: 249-8950. RARE-BOOK SAMPLER The first book printed in New York - by William Bradford in 1693 - was ''New England's Spirit of Persecution Transmitted to Pennsilvania.'' It and other books and rare and historical manuscripts, journals, lithographs, stereoscopic views and clippership cards, which advertised voyages from San Francisco to New York in 100 to 120 days, are on display at the New-York Historical Society. The exhibition is called ''A Collector's Sample: Library Accessions 1980-82.'' The society is on Central Park West at 77th Street. Hours: Tuesday through Friday, 11 A.M. to 5 P.M.; Saturday, 10 A.M. to 5, and Sunday, noon to 5. Closed Mondays. Information: 873-3400.

The Salvadoran Government, with the quiet support of the Reagan Administration, has begun an indirect ''dialogue'' with guerrilla leaders intended to end the civil war. Western diplomats said today that interest in talks had increased in the aftermath of a secret meeting in San Salvador on Sept. 3 between the provisional President, Alvaro Magana, and the Costa Rican Foreign Minister, Fernando Volio, to discuss peace negotiations between the Government and guerrilla forces. Mr. Volio's trip to the capital came after Costa Rica's President, Luis Alberto Monge, met in Costa Rica with Guillermo Manuel Ungo, head of the Democratic Revolutionary Front, the political arm of the leftist-led guerrillas. In an interview last weekend, Mr. Magana denied that he was studying proposals from the guerrillas, who are grouped together in the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Army. But he said he hoped to establish a multiparty commission before the end of September to take up the question of whether to open peace negotiations. Any suggestion of negotiations with the insurgents would have to be taken up by the commission, he said.

Sweet pastries and round hallahs are piled high in the windows of the bakery on Hester Street. The shops on Orchard Street are busy as families buy new clothing. The sagging wooden benches at the 10th Street Baths are jammed. And there are still tickets left for services at the synagogue on Norfolk Street. At sundown tonight, Rosh ha-Shanah, the Jewish New Year of 5743, begins. And there is probably no better place in town to experience its coming than on the Lower East Side.

Governor Carey rejected his Lieutenant Governor yesterday and endorsed Mayor Koch for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in next Thursday's primary. ''I believe Ed Koch will provide the most capable and effective leadership,'' Mr. Carey told a news conference at the St. Regis Hotel at Fifth Avenue and 55th Street. The Mayor stood silently beside him. The Lieutenant Governor, Mario M. Cuomo, reacted quickly. ''I told him to lay off those PCB's,'' he said, alluding to a comment the Governor made last year after a state office building in Binghamton was found to be contaminated with the chemical. Mr. Carey had said he would be willing to drink a glass of PCB's.

The shortage of natural gas, so acute a few winters ago that many industrial plants were forced to close, has been transformed into abundance. Demand for gas is down, supplies are up and many producers have closed wells because they cannot find markets. Some small operators are even reported to be flaring, or burning off, their gas. Despite all this, most consumers of natural gas have encountered sharp price increases that may persist through the winter heating season. Householders, in fact, seem to be paying somewhat more for gas now than they would have paid without a surplus. This is in contrast to what happened last year in the oil market, where a slump in demand led to a price drop.

The day after the Bendix Corporation announced its surprise attempt to take over the Martin Marietta Corporation, one of Marietta's directors took off his necktie and gave it to Thomas G. Pownall, the 60-year-old Annapolis graduate who runs Marietta. Emblazoned on the tie were naval pennants reading ''Don't Give Up the Ship.'' The director who made the gift, John J. Byrne, who is chairman of the Geico Corporation, said the tie had helped his company thwart an unfriendly takeover attempt. ''I've worn it every day since then,'' Mr. Pownall said today in his first interview since Aug. 25, the day the dispute erupted between Marietta and Bendix.

Israeli troops seized control of most of west Beirut today after overcoming resistance by small groups of Lebanese Moslem and leftist militiamen. Continuing the drive that began on Wednesday, hours after Lebanon's President-elect, Bashir Gemayel, was assassinated, Israeli troops and tanks drove into all main sections of the predominantly Moslem western sector of the city. By nightfall, they appeared to control most of the streets. (In Jerusalem, the Israeli Government said the troops would not leave west Beirut until Lebanese forces were ready to take over. Page A8.)

With goods selling slowly, manufacturers used just 69.4 percent of their factories' capacity last month, the lowest rate since the 1974-75 recession, the Federal Reserve Board reported today. The August rate represented a drop of five-tenths of a percentage point from July. The decline was the 11th in 13 months, giving no hint that the downturn was ending.