What was going on when I was born?

A bill that would require one minute of ''silent contemplation and introspection'' in New Jersey's public schools at the start of each day won final legislative approval in Trenton yesterday, but Governor Kean declined to say whether he would sign it into law. The bill, containing no mention of prayer in the schools, which has repeatedly been found unconstitutional by Federal and state courts, was passed by the State Senate by a vote of 30 to 5. A similar measure was approved by the Assembly last May by a 62-to-9 margin.

The Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded yesterday to Dr. Kenneth G. Wilson of Cornell University for his method of analyzing the basic changes in matter under the influence of pressure and temperature. The Swedish Academy of Sciences, in announcing the award, said Dr. Wilson, 46 years old, was honored for solving ''in a definite and profound way the critical phenomena'' inherent in such changes as that of metal to liquid and water to steam. His analysis has led to the understanding of diverse phenomena in metallurgy, biology and physics, phenomena that may involve billions upon billions of particles, atoms or molecules and that had puzzled scientists for centuries. Chemistry Prize Also Awarded The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Dr. Aaron Klug, a South African-born scientist whose research has revealed the most detailed structures of viruses and some of the most important components within all living things. Dr. Klug has been a research scientist at the Medical Research Council's Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, for 20 years. (Page C6.)

An article in Metropolitan Report yesterday about a Connecticut folk singer incorrectly identified the composer of ''I'm Proud to Be an Okie From Muskogee.'' The song was written by Merle Haggard and Eddie Burris.

International President Amin Gemayel urged the world's governments to help rid Lebanon of all foreign forces. In an emotion-filled speech to the United Nations General Assembly, the new Lebanese leader said his nation had suffered for eight years from ''competing ideologies in the Arab world, the Palestinian armed and uncontrolled presence'' and ''recurring Israeli invasions and incursions.'' Later, addressing the Security Council, Mr. Gemayel singled out Israel as the chief obstacle to peace in Lebanon. (Page A1, Column 6.) Israel's borders are all secure for the first time in history, Prime Minister Menachem Begin said in an address to a new session of Parliament. He said the situation was the result of his Government's policies. (A1:5.)

WHEN children under detention at the San Bernardino County Probation Department in California become violent, they are put in an 8-foot by 4-foot cell with one distinctive feature - it is bubble gum pink. The children tend to relax, stop yelling and banging and often fall asleep within 10 minutes, said Paul E. Boccumini, director of clinical services for the department. This approach to calming manic and psychotic juveniles contrasts sharply with the use of brute force favored as little as three years ago. ''We used to have to literally sit on them,'' said Mr. Boccumini, a clinical psychologist. ''Now we put them in the pink room. It works.'' Not all psychologists are quite so sure; many, to put it mildly, remain skeptical. Nonetheless, officials at an estimated 1,500 hospitals and correctional institutions across America have become sufficiently convinced of the pacifying effect of bubble gum pink to color at least one room that shade.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 26.12 points, to 1,019.22, its highest level in nearly 18 months, on forecasts of further interest rate declines. Trading volume, however, was relatively light by recent standards, with a turnover of 83.8 million shares. (Page D1.) Interest rates fell slightly in quiet trading. At the weekly Treasury auction, average rates of three- and six-month bills were little changed. (D20.) Prices of interest rate futures rose. (D22.) The dollar turned in a mixed performance. Gold closed in late New York trading at $434 an ounce, up $8.(D22.)

TWO decades ago, California was widely considered a leader in public education, as a state that demonstrated a willingness to spend on schools to get results and as a state whose students surpassed national norms for learning achievement. Educators now say the schools' performance has slipped and is in danger of further decline because of two factors: reduced financial support as result of Proposition 13, the major tax-cutting measure adopted in 1978, and the nationwide economic recession, which has cut into the state's overall tax revenues. Some signs of slippage that have concerned educators and parents are the elimination by many districts of such electives as music, art and typing, a shrinking school day, increasing teacher-pupil ratios and a drop in performance by high school seniors on the Scholastic Aptitude Test while students in other states are making gains. California, with four million public school children and a total school budget last year of $12.6 billion, has dropped in two years to 35th from 21st among states in expenditures per pupil, according to the National Education Association. The state is now spending $2,337 per pupil as against a national average of $2,690. California now ranks last among the states in the percentage of taxpayer personal income devoted to public schools. In the 1981-82 school year, 3.7 percent of Californians' income went to public schools, an all-time low for the state.

The Chrysler Corporation declared today that it would suffer a strike rather than grant the immediate hourly wage increase demanded by the United Automobile Workers. Such a strike ''could ruin us'' in a matter of weeks, Thomas W. Miner, the auto maker's chief labor negotiator, said today after a meeting with the union. But, he added, ''there is simply no more money available'' to meet the union's demand for the wage increase as the price of getting its members to agree to a new contract. Chrysler is showing the first signs of emerging from a three-year financial crisis, but its leaders have cautioned that it is too early for it to commit itself to wages paid by the other auto makers.

Government and industry leaders are expessing concern that Japanese imports will rise sharply as a result of the recent decline in the value of the yen, thus intensifying trade problems with Japan. In just two years, the yen has depreciated more than 25 percent, from about 200 to the dollar to about 268 today, with much of the decline in recent months. This has yielded what Alexander B. Trowbridge, the president of the National Association of Manufacturers, calls ''an inordinately competitive price'' for Japanese cars, machine tools and other products exported to the United States.

The seemingly inexorable push toward expanded military operations in space has raised some of the most complex and difficult questions ever faced by the world's political and military leaders. Is this course truly inevitable, given the nature of man and international rivalries? Will it reduce the risk of war or merely lead to another, more costly phase of the arms race and turn man's newest frontier into a potential battleground? Many military planners and their political allies, reciting maxims of seapower, airpower and the foot soldier's ''high ground,'' tend to take for granted the strategic value of space and its ultimate exploitation by the superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union. They believe that the widespread militarization of space cannot be avoided and advocate the development of new weapons and defenses that, if deployed, would fulfill their prophecy. History, they contend, is in their camp. Ronald H. Stivers, Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for policy, said recently: ''History teaches us that each time a new medium is opened to man it is exploited to gain a military advantage. The course of world affairs has repeatedly been altered by the nation which first grasped the advantages offered by developing the military potential of the newest medium.''

A chart yesterday in SportsMonday with an article on the distance runners Alberto Salazar and Dick Beardsley incorrectly dated Salazar's marathon time of 2 hours 9 minutes 41 seconds. It was recorded in October 1980.

In an emotion-filled speech to the General Assembly, President Amin Gemayel urged the world's governments today to help rid Lebanon of all foreign forces. He said that his nation had suffered for eight years from ''competing ideologies in the Arab world, the Palestinian armed and uncontrolled presence'' and ''recurring Israeli invasions and incursions.'' His voice rising, the youthful-looking, 40-year-old President said: ''I call for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all non-Lebanese forces from Lebanon. I call upon the world community to help Lebanon regain its real independence.''