What was going on when I was born?

ARCADIA, Calif. WAYNE LUKAS has developed a sort of video game that could be called ''How Fast Is This Horse Going?'' He claims that you could try it out on ''the most knowledgeable horsemen in the world,'' and that ''not one in 5,000'' would get the right answer. To play the game, as he did with several top trainers at a recent yearling sale, Lukas puts on a video cassette of a July race at Hollywood Park and asks the player to keep his eye on the 2-year-old filly wearing No.1 on her saddlecloth. ''That doesn't look like a 2-year-old filly; that almost looks like a 3-year-old colt,'' some have protested, looking at the barrel-chested bay filly standing in the starting gate. Lukas smiles. His fun is just beginning.

E.T. may be afraid. He may be three million light years from home. But contrary to the advertising assertions of the company that made the top-grossing movie, ''E.T. - the Extra-Terrestrial,'' he is not totally alone. The wizened, pot-bellied figure and his initials are being reproduced in stuffed dolls, key rings and T-shirts -many of which are flagrantly illegal, according to Universal Pictures, the film's producer.

The finish in the women's division in the 13th New York City Marathon yesterday was not highlighted by the kind of down-to-thewire suspense that marked the men's race. But for Grete Waitz of Norway, the victory bore as much meaning. Inspired by the unpleasant memory of the recent injuries that forced her to drop out of her last two marathons, Mrs. Waitz won her fourth New York title in the last five years - completing what she would later call a ''safe'' race in 2 hours 27 minutes 14 seconds. And unlike the men's winner, Alberto Salazar, who won by four seconds with a wrenching sprint in the final moments, Mrs. Waitz, running relaxed and confident on the cool autumn day, easily outraced the record field of 2,600 women. She crossed the finish line at Tavern-On-The-Green in Central Park more than a minute ahead of her nearest foe, Julie Brown of San Diego. Such a showing, especially after her injuries, re-established the 29-year-old Mrs. Waitz as the most consistently dominant female long-distance runner in the world.

The Administration is basing its Soviet policy on the assumption that there will be an early change in the Kremlin leadership. Page A9. MOSCOW, Oct. 24 - A deepening chill appears to be settling into Soviet life as the Kremlin moves to eliminate stirrings of unorthodoxy and dissent that have survived previous campaigns of repression. Western diplomats here say that two principal factors appear to have contributed to the creation of this atmosphere: uncertainty over who will succeed Leonid I. Brezhnev as the Communist Party leader and the deeply strained relations with the United States. In recent months, the chill has manifested itself in a sharp increase in house searches, threats, beatings, interrogations and arrests carried out by the political police of the K.G.B., the Soviet intelligence and state security agency. The targets are individuals deemed threatening to the state.

Third-quarter corporate profits were weak. Some companies benefited from lower interest rates and from cuts in spending made earlier in the year. But in many cases, the gains were offset by poor sales and such unexpected problems as the devaluation of the Mexican peso and its consequences for trade. (D1.)

Five men drowned and three others were missing and presumed lost today when a chartered fishing boat with 22 people on board foundered in choppy Atlantic seas. The 50-foot boat capsized within sight of the New Jersey shore about 40 miles south of New York City. The boat's captain and the mate were among the dead, and the cause of the sinking - which occurred while small-craft warnings were posted for mariners - was not immediately known, the Coast Guard said. Some survivors, however, told of a huge wave that appeared suddenly and struck broadside on the starboard beam, rolling the boat and her towering flying bridge onto her port side and hurling passengers and crewmen into the water.

New York City is about to trade two products of sewage treatment - methane gas and cool, clean water - for hot water, in an unusual arrangement to save money and conserve energy, city officials said yesterday. For years, the city has burned off excess methane at a sewage plant in Brooklyn, while 60 feet away Starrett City, a privately owned housing complex, has paid millions of dollars for heating fuel. Now, in what is believed to be the first exchange of its kind involving a government agency and a private business in the country, the city will give Starrett City all of the methane produced at the 26th Ward sewage-treatment plant. The city will also pump thousands of gallons of treated water over to Starrett's power plant to be used for cooling.

Should American high schools adopt a uniform curriculum? Can they uphold educational standards and still ensure equality of opportunity? And is money available to make these and other changes? Six leading educators addressed these problems of American education - and offered different prescriptions for them - during a forum yesterday on the future of the American high school at the opening symposium of the College Board's three-day national conference in Manhattan. Speaking before more than 300 educators from across the country at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, the panelists described the ills afflicting American education and outlined studies they were directing on high school education.

After a year in power, Greece's governing Socialist Party appeared to be winning a strong vote of confidence from the electorate in today's second and final round of municipal elections. The Socialist victory is likely to give new impetus to the domestic program of Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, which is based on administrative decentralization. One aspect of this is that the Government will clearly find it easier to work with municipalities controlled by its own people. According to substantial returns in runoff elections for mayor, Socialist candidates with Communist backing were firmly ahead of right-wing rivals in the important cities of Athens, Salonika, Piraeus, the former right-wing stronghold of Ioannina, and others.

People removed from the welfare rolls because of Reagan Administration policies have generally stayed off welfare, despite many predictions that they would return. Federal and state welfare officials report that in most states, 10 to 15 percent of those who lost their welfare payments in the last quarter of 1981 are now back on the rolls. This percentage is significantly lower than some state officials had expected. Most of the people whose welfare benefits were ended were earning income from jobs that exceeded new limits set by Congress at the urging of the Reagan Administration as part of its efforts to reduce Government spending. Those jobs paid so little that they had qualified for welfare under the old rules.

The recent sharp downward trend in mortgage rates is helping revive the moribund housing industry and giving home buyers increased hope of finding affordable living quarters. Growing competition among lenders, more new applications for mortgages and rising housing starts are indicative of the modest turnaround in the market. ''The pattern has been down about 3 to 5 percentage points since midyear,'' said Allen Sinai, senior vice president of Data Reources Inc. ''And that means $150 to $200 a month less in payments on a typical $60,000, 30-year mortgage loan.'' Speed of Drop Slowing The speed of the rate decline, however, appears to be slowing. While mortgage experts expect further rate drops, they said the pace of the decline will moderate.

International A Socialist victory in Greece appeared to be near for the party that has governed the country for a year. In the second and final round of municipal elections Socialist candidates with Communist backing were firmly ahead of right-wing rivals in Athens, Salonika, Piraeus and the former right-wing stronghold of Ioannina and others. (Page A1, Column 6.) Further repression by Moscow appears to be settling over the Russians as the Kremlin moves in various ways to eliminate stirrings of unorthodoxy and dissent that it had stifled in previous clampdowns. Western diplomats in Moscow say that two principal factors appear to have contributed to more restrictions on Soviet life. These are the uncertainty over who will succeed Leonid I. Brezhnev as the Communist Party leader, and the deeply strained relations with the United States. (A1:5.)