What was going on when I was born?

International French and Italian soldiers entered Shatila and Sabra, the two refugee camps in Beirut where hundreds of Palestinians were killed by Christian militiamen more than a week ago. The French and Italian peacekeepers moved in after Israeli troops virtually completed their withdrawal from West Beirut. (Page A1, Column 6.) The number of American Marines expected to land in Beirut this week may reach 1,200, according to a State Department spokesman. A Pentagon official said the Marines would be given more freedom of action in safeguarding lives and public order than was authorized for the 800 Marines stationed in Beirut to help oversee the withdrawal of Palestine Liberation Organization forces. (A8:5-6.)

TODAY, in places unknown but probably thousands of miles beyond our shores, the influenza virus is preparing its next seasonal assault on the American people. Doctors and clinics are taking steps now against the invasion by giving vaccinations against the potentially serious infection. Flu usually arrives in late fall or early winter, but immunization must be given well in advance for immunity to have time to develop. This year, scientists face the coming season with more knowledge than ever about the nature and behavior of influenza viruses, but are still confronted by difficult puzzles -some of which have actually deepened in recent years. Flu has always been hard to control, but Dr. John R. La Montagne, a flu expert at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Md., believes several promising advances have been made recently in research. - The synthetic drug amantadine, and its newer chemical relative, rimantadine, have been found to be effective both in preventing and treating the type of flu that usually comes in epidemics.

An article on the obituary page yes- terday gave an incorrect address for a memorial service for Peter Cusick. It will be held at noon Friday at the Council on Foreign Relations, 58 East 68th Street.

The Scouting column in Sports Pages last Saturday incorrectly identified a National Basketball Association photographer. He is Jim Cummins.

Black and Hispanic candidates made only slight gains in Thursday's New York City primary elections for seats in Congress, on the City Council and in the State Legislature, despite nearly two years of intense controversy over how the city's district boundaries should be drawn to guarantee minority rights. In Congress, the city is virtually assured of having four black or Hispanic Representatives, one more than it has now. In the City Council, minorities were expected to gain one seat, winning new districts in the Bronx and in Brooklyn but apparently losing a district that includes parts of Manhattan and the Bronx. The count in that district, however, was very close.

''Real jobs,'' said Gerard DeToia, with a touch of awe and hope. ''They say that they have real jobs in there.'' The 20-year-old Mr. DeToia has had quite enough in recent months of combing the classifieds, pounding the pavement and trying to track down people said to know people who think a job might open up somewhere if the economy ever picks up. Finally he stood at a door with ''real jobs'' behind it. Unfortunately he stood along with hundreds, then thousands of others as word spread fast that Marriott Hotels Inc. was hiring a complete staff for a new hotel next to the Nassau Coliseum. A hotel spokesman said 4,508 people, many of them ''highly overqualified,'' had shown up to apply for 296 jobs ranging from dishwashers to desk clerks.

Federal bank regulators investigating the collapse of the Penn Square Bank of Oklahoma City have referred 30 cases to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution, according to confidential documents obtained by a Congressional subcommittee. The documents show that the 30 cases involve dozens of individuals, transactions totaling more than $70 million and a wide range of potential violations. These include kickbacks, misapplication of bank funds, conspiracy, bank fraud, concealment, wire fraud, falsified books and records and interstate transportation of stolen property. The documents do not show the names of individuals involved in the various cases, but sources familiar with the inquiry say that many of the cases involve bank officers or directors as well as some large borrowers from the bank. More referrals are expected.

James W. McLernon resigned as president and chief executive officer of Volkswagen of America today, apparently as a result of the company's severely depressed sales. Mr. McLernon, whose background is mostly in manufacturing, will be succeeded by Noel Phillips, who was VW of America's executive vice president for sales and marketing from 1978 to 1980. Mr. Phillips, a native of South Africa, is currently managing director of the McCarthy Group, an automotive products company in South Africa. No reason was given for the resignation of Mr. McLernon, who is 55 years old. A statement said Mr. McLernon ''gave no indication of his future plans.'' He was not available for comment.

While most residential mortgage lenders retreated from the market under the press of high interest rates in the past two years, Charles W. Knapp and the Financial Corporation of America plunged ahead. Last year, F.C.A.'s thrift unit, State Savings and Loan Association, wrote more than half of the new mortgages issued by California savings institutions. By last June, its mortgage loans had more than doubled in 12 months to $4.7 billion, making it the leading lender among thrift institutions in the nation during that period. Mr. Knapp's aggressive lending strategy appears to have been vindicated. The interest rate declines of late summer have sharply pared F.C.A.'s costs and, for now, it is piling up profits while competitors talk hopefully of narrowing losses.

The President of Brazil said today that the world was facing a depression of 1930's magnitude, and he accused the major powers of destroying rather than creating wealth . The President, Joao Baptista Figueiredo, called on such global organizations as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to propose ''emergency measures'' to free world trade and lending. He specifically urged lower interest rates and a halt to barriers against trade. Mr. Figueiredo was the first speaker at the new session of the United Nations General Assembly. His emphasis on the world economy was a departure from the heavily political speeches usually given during the General Assembly's open debate. The emphasis reflected not only Brazil's particular problems -it is the world's secondlargest debtor, behind Mexico - but also a growing feeling among many third-world and industrial nations that the potential of economic collapse may be the single greatest threat to world peace.

Differences between the United States and its key allies over the Siberian pipeline sanctions are so wide that they have agreed that there is no point in discussing possible compromises at this time, an American spokesman said yesterday. The spokesman, John Hughes of the State Department, noted earlier official suggestions that Secretary of State George P. Shultz would discuss ways of settling the dispute with European officials over the next two weeks at the United Nations General Assembly session. But he said ''it is a fair assumption that nothing is going on.'' His comment reflected what appeared to be a hardening of positions in Washington and Western European capitals on the issue. Mr. Hughes said that during a wide-ranging three-hour dinner meeting on Sunday night in New York, Mr. Shultz and Foreign Minister Claude Cheysson of France deliberately did not discuss the American sanctions policy because their differences were so well known and unbridgeable for the moment.

French and Italian soldiers today entered the two Palestinian refugee camps where hundreds of Palestinians were killed by Lebanese Christian militiamen more than a week ago. The soldiers, members of a multin@ational force that is to include United States marines, took up security duties in the Shatila and Sabra camps this morning on the southern outskirts of West Beirut. They did so a day after Israeli troops virtually completed their withdrawal from West Beirut. Small Israeli units remained behind the walls of the port and at the international airport in the suburbs south of the city.