What was going on when I was born?

Republican leaders, thrown on the defensive by their own polls showing a Democratic surge in mid-October, are striking back in regional trouble spots in an effort to hold their Senate majority and to stave off major Democratic gains in the House of Representatives. In two final days of campaigning in the West, President Reagan focused his fire on the touchy Social Security issue and the theme that ''America is on her way back'' from recession because of his economic program. (Page 33.) Mr. Reagan seized on an announcement that the index of leading economic A surge of contributions strengthened the prospects of Republican Congressional candidates. Page 33. indicators rose five-tenths of 1 percent in September, marking the fifth gain in six months. (Page 37.)

In a few weeks he will become the youngest prime minister in Western Europe. He is only 40 years old, and he looks even younger. But Felipe Gonzalez firmly rejects the charge that he is too naive, too inexperienced to govern. ''I have been deeply involved in politics for 20 years,'' he said a few days before his sweeping victory in Thursday's general election, which returned the Spanish left to power after more than 40 years in exile and then in opposition. ''There are few politicians today in Spain who have as much experience as I do with democracy.'' The Socialist victory was so sweeping that it shattered the ruling Union of the Democratic Center and even deprived Prime Minister Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo of his own seat. The Prime Minister, who will lead a caretaker government until the Socialists take over in December, promised that he would allow no power vacuum to develop in Spain while the country awaits Socialist rule. (Page 4.)

More than a year after the deadline for compliance with New York City's fire-safety code, 167 of the city's 851 high-rise office buildings have met all the law's requirements, according to city building and fire officials. Blaise F. Parascandola, deputy commissioner of the Department of Buildings, said in an interview that owners of nearly half the city's office towers had done little or nothing to comply. He added that, since last October, when 150 buildings were in compliance, only 17 more landlords had installed all the safety equipment required by the code. He added that those who had shown at least some effort to meet the regulations - about one-third of the landlords - had been given extensions, most of which expire at the end of this year. ''We use the carrot-and-stick approach,'' he said. Deputy Mayor Nathan Leventhal said last year that the city would try to send delinquent landlords to jail. But Mr. Parascandola said that, in the last year, the city's Corporation Counsel had failed to ''vigorously pursue'' 297 landlords who did not show up in court in response to citations, and that no one had been jailed for noncompliance.

John Z. De Lorean was indicted by a Federal grand jury today on charges of drug trafficking and racketeering. His lawyers posted $10 million bail soon afterward, and he walked out of the Federal prison here after spending 10 nights in jail. The indictment charged that Mr. De Lorean financed a multimilliondollar cocaine operation that was aborted last week when drug agents seized 60 pounds of cocaine worth $24 million. The indictment supersedes similar charges that were filed against the maverick automobile company executive on Oct. 19.

The Food and Drug Administration yesterday approved the marketing of human insulin made artificially from gene-splicing techniques. It is the first such product of genetic engineering to be granted Governmental approval for human use. The new insulin, called Humulin, is manufactured by a technique known as recombinant DNA, which involves inserting human genetic instructions into a bacterium that then produces the drug. The approval by the Food and Drug Administration came five months after application was made by Eli Lilly and Company of Indianapolis, Ind. Normally, such approval takes 20 to 30 months.

A high-ranking member of the Politburo said today that the Soviet Union continued to stand for a reduction of tensions with the United States and would wait if necessary for the ''primitive anti-Communism'' of the Reagan Administration to pass. The comment by the official, Konstantin U. Chernenko, in a major speech seemed intended to balance Leonid I. Brezhnev's hard-hitting address to Soviet generals two days ago. Mr. Chernenko, considered Mr. Brezhnev's closest lieutenant and a possible successor, said Moscow remained committed to an improvement of relations with Washington along with its current efforts to end its bitter dispute with China. ''The Soviet Union is opposed to a further growth of tensions in Soviet-American relations,'' Mr. Chernenko said. ''We stand for their normalization and improvement and are prepared to engage in businesslike and detailed negotiations which must of necessity take account of the interests of both sides.''

Senior officials of the United States and key allies discussed a plan today under which the Reagan Administration would drop its sanctions against companies that helped to build the Soviet natural gas pipeline. The talks with Japan and key Western countries involved a possible long-term agreement on East-West trade issues. Today's was the second such session in a week between the foreign envoys and Lawrence S. Eagleburger, the Under Secretary for Political Affairs. The talks have been conducted with considerable secrecy, and only Secretary of State George P. Shultz and a handful of aides are aware of the details, State Department officials said. Warning Against Speculation Although the State Department and the White House both cautioned against speculation that an agreement was imminent, officials from other agencies said they believed one was near. They added that the White House was hoping to enhance the chances on Tuesday for election of Republican candidates to Congress by being able to announce an agreement in principle before then.

Some 300 people are believed to have been killed Tuesday in religious rioting 750 miles northeast of here, the Nigerian radio reported today. An official statement issued here said the rioting erupted in the northeastern town of Maiduguri when policemen tried to arrest 16 members of an extremist Moslem sect that proclaims Mohammadu Marwa, and not Mohammed, as the prophet of Islam. The 16 were publicly repeating their devotion to Mohammadu Marwa, who was killed nearly two years ago in religious rioting, and urging people not to mention the name of Mohammed.

Morris Draper, the special American envoy, met with Prime Minister Menachem Begin and other key Israeli officials today in his continuing effort to find an acceptable formula for the withdrawal of Israeli, Syrian and Palestinian forces from Lebanon. Foreign Ministry officials said Mr. Draper, who arrived here from Beirut, discussed his recent meetings with the Lebanese President, Amin Gemayel, and Prime Minister Shafik al-Wazzan. The officials said he expressed the hope that negotiations between the Lebanese and the Israelis could start soon.

Iran's unsuccessful attempt to force a vote in the General Assembly last week on Israel's credentials was motivated by revenge - against its Moslem brothers from Arab countries. This is the view of diplomats here most familiar with Teheran's thinking, although it is denied by Iran's delegate to the United Nations. But according to those close to the event, it followed this course: At a private meeting on Oct. 19 the Arab countries, persuaded by other Moslem nations, agreed to abandon their challenge to Israel's seat in the General Assembly, convinced that it would hurt their cause politically and tactically. Instead they agreed to express a ''collective reservation'' on Israel's legitimacy.

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, on the first visit by a British Government leader to West Berlin in 11 years, launched a caustic attack against Communism, describing the Soviet Union as a ''power dedicated to the denial of all we believe in.'' Speaking at the city hall in the district of Schoneberg, where she was received by Mayor Richard von Weizsacker, Mrs. Thatcher described the Berlin wall, which she peered at earlier in the day, as a ''grim monument to a cruel and desolate creed.'' ''Every stone bears witness to the moral bankruptcy of the society it encloses,'' she said. Widening her attack, Mrs. Thatcher called for greater Western conventional and nuclear preparedness, saying that ''the wall is an ever present reminder that those who repress the liberties of our Eastern neighbors seek also to extinguish our own.''

The head of Poland's military Government, Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, plans to ''limit American activeness on Polish territory'' in retaliation for President Reagan's latest trade sanctions, the official Polish press agency P.A.P. reported tonight. In the first official account of General Jaruzelski's closing speech to a meeting of the Polish Communist Party's Central Committee, which ended Thursday, the press agency quoted the Polish leader as saying that he had expected the latest United States sanctions, which were imposed after the formal abolition of the Solidarity union Oct. 8.