What was going on when I was born?

Stan Janda of nearby Manassas, Va., walked into the Sears, Roebuck & Company store at the Fair Oaks Mall the other day to return an item. Soon, however, he found himself browsing through racks of literature at the store's financial service center, where employees were selling insurance, stocks and bonds, and homes. But on that day, all Mr. Janda did was browse. Such is the challenge faced by Sears: Can the world's largest retailer interest its traditional shopper in the financial services on which it has staked so much?

Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules discovered in the Philadelphia apartment of a student whose death six five months ago was ruled a suicide have been found to contain cyanide, the police in Philadelphia said yesterday. But they emphasized that there were no indications of a link to the seven deaths in the Chicago area traced to cyanide-tainted Tylenol. In Chicago, Attorney General Tyrone Fahner of Illinois, who is leading the investigation into the Chicago deaths, also urged caution over reports that the Philadelphia police had reopened the suicide case. Tylenol Found in a Shoe When the Phildelphia student died April 3, his body was found to contain cyanide, but a test then of the Tylenol capsules found in a shoe in a closet showed no indication of the poison, according to Chief Inspector Frank Scafidi of the Philadelphia police homicide squad. The deaths in Chicago, however, led the police to re-examine the capsules this week, and this time they were found to contain cyanide, the chief said at a news conference last night.

Expectations that interest rates will continue to drop, as they have recently, set off a stock market rally yesterday that drove up the Dow Jones industrial average by 37.07 points, its second-biggest rise in history. The surge left the Dow average at 944.26, its highest level in 14 months. The jump was the latest of a half-dozen or so dramatic surges since mid-August, when interest rates first started to decline after more than a year at unusually high levels. The Dow average has risen 157 points since Aug. 12.

Spain's general election campaign opened officially today with a new note of uncertainty in the air. Until last weekend, polls and politicians had agreed that the Socialist Party, led by 40-year-old Felipe Gonzalez, the country's most popular politician, would finish first in the voting on Oct. 28. The only question seemed to be whether Mr. Gonzalez would win a majority of the 350 seats in the Congress, the legislative house of Parliament, or be forced to form a coalition. Indeed, the latest poll, published today in the Madrid daily El Pais but completed last week, gave the Socialists 34 percent of the vote as agaanst only 9.8 percent for the second strongest force, the right-wing Popular Alliance headed by Manuel Fraga, a former minister under Francisco Franco.

Touched off by a sharp drop in key interest rates, the credit markets staged a broad rally yesterday, with some Government securities prices climbing a point. ''Things were pretty dull Tuesday,'' a Government securities dealer said, ''but we saw a strong market and good trading today.'' Illustrating the move to higher prices and declining yields was the action of the Treasury's benchmark 14 percent bond due in 2011. It climbed a point, or $10 for each $1,000 of face value, to 119 4/32, thus yielding 11.62 percent. Yesterday's price edged within a half-point of the bond's peak level, set last week.

it is invisible and changeable, yet it has color, intensity, direction and sometimes shape. It can be warm or cold, soft or harsh. It can shimmer, sparkle, glow or glare. It can be friendly, merciless, tiring or comforting. In the home, light is - or should be - a basic element of design. As Abe Feder, a pioneer in theatrical and architectural lighting, puts it: ''Light is the only design material that can fill a space without blocking it.'' Even those who are aware of the importance of good lighting are often confused about how to achieve it. ''The most common error,'' said Robert Prouse, a lighting designer with Howard Brandston Lighting Design, ''is to start out trying to select the right equipment. That comes last.'' Mr. Prouse, who also teaches in the Lighting Institute at the Parsons School of Design, continued, ''There are technical solutions to lighting problems, but first you have to define the problem.''

A Federal court in New Jersey has ruled that the bankruptcy petition filed by the Manville Corporation does not bar asbestos victims from pursuing their lawsuits against other manufactuers and users of asbestos. A law clerk to Judge Stanley S. Brotman, who issued the opinion Tuesday, said the decision affected 12 pending lawsuits involving about 25 defendants, including Owens-Illinois Inc. and Raymark Industries. Trials in two of the cases have been set for November, according to the clerk at the United States District Court in Camden, N.J. These defendents have argued that, with litigation suspended against Manville, the chief defendant, cases against them should come to a halt, too. The lawsuits, by employees or families of dead employees, contend that exposure to asbestos in the workplace caused disabling and sometimes fatal asbestos-related disease.

The General Foods Corporation announced yesterday that it had reached an agreement to buy Entenmann's Inc. bakery, from the Warner-Lambert Company for about $315 million in cash. James L. Ferguson, chairman and chief executive of General Foods, said the acquisition of a rapidly expanding food business such as Entenmann's would contribute to the company's long-term growth prospects. Ward S. Hagan, chairman of Warner-Lambert, said the company would use the proceeds to retire short-term debt, some of which was incurred in August when it bought the IMED Corporation, a maker of medical electronic equipment, for $465 million in cash. Mr. Hagan also said the sale ''reflects Warner-Lambert's continuing strategy to concentrate resources more within health care markets.''

An article in Metropolitan Report Tuesday about the Manhattan Democratic organization's filing of nomination papers incorrectly identified Judge Jack Rosenberg's court. It is Criminal Court.

China may eventually rank with India as the World Bank's two largest borrowers, according to a top bank official who has completed talks with the Government here. ''We are still far from reaching our cruising altitude with regard to China,'' said Munir P. Benjenk, the World Bank's vice president of external relations. He estimated that China might approach India's level some time in 1985.

Richard S. Schweiker, Secretary of Health and Human Services, today proposed a new system of paying hospitals for the services they provide under Medicare, the health insurance program for the elderly. Under the proposal, the Federal Government would pay all hospitals the same amount, fixed in advance, for treating any patient with a particular diagnosis. Mr. Schweiker said this would represent a profound change from the payment system used for 16 years. Under that system, Medicare has generally paid hospitals for all reasonable costs that they incurred.

Another detour was added yesterday to the Henry Hudson Parkway, a road already known for its tie-ups, potholes, steel plates and wear and tear on automobiles. Two lanes of what is supposed to be a six-lane highway were closed for about a mile, from 148th Street to 168th Street. Taken with an earlier milelong closing to the south, there will be only two lanes in either direction for the two-mile stretch from 125th Street to the entrance ramps to the George Washington Bridge.