What was going on when I was born?

A Company News item in Business Day Saturday incorrectly reported the terms under which Carl C. Icahn, a New York investor, is offering $16.50 a share for two million shares of the Dan River Company. The offer is not contingent on a move by Dan River to halt its litigation against Mr. Icahn's takeover bid.

International A crisis in Arab politics of revolutionary proportions has followed Israel's invasion of Lebanon. A tour of the Middle East indicates that Arabs are deeply humiliated over the lack of any concerted response by Arab governments to the invasion. (Page A1, Columns 3-5.) An effort to bolster Poland's economy has reached a crucial point. Political disturbances have cut factory and farm production and, in addition, without the money to meet payments on foreign debts of more than $24 billion Poland cannot afford to import vital machinery and raw materials from the West. (A1:1-2.)

In his World Trade Center office and by telephone from his home in Queens, Governor-elect Mario M. Cuomo is working intensively to form a government, interviewing job candidates, reorganizing the Governor's office and setting positions on major issues. He has taken personal control of important aspects of his transition to power. Aides say that his direct involvement in the transition to power may be an early sign of a significant difference between a Cuomo administration and that of Governor Carey. In the Governor's office under Mr. Carey, decisions were made through a rigid chain of command. In Mr. Cuomo's administration, he and aides say, the Governor's office will be less hierarchical and more aides will have direct access to the Governor.

A Company News item in Business Day on Nov. 11 incorrectly reported on two steel plant closings. Roblin Industries said its plants in Dunkirk and North Tonawanda, N.Y., would reopen Jan. 4.

Five years after he was convicted of heading ''the most venal drug ring'' in New York City and sentenced to life in prison without parole, Leroy (Nicky) Barnes has become a Federal informant, according to Federal law enforcement officials and Mr. Barnes's former lawyer. Mr. Barnes's cooperation, according to the officials, led to the indictments last month on narcotics charges of nine persons in Manhattan, including a woman who is said to have told an undercover agent that she was Mr. Barnes's common-law wife. According to an indictment, the woman, 33-year-old Thelma Grant, boasted that she had assumed control of Mr. Barnes's organization after he went to prison, and that she made about $26,000 every two days from heroin sales. 'Barnes Is Cooperating' ''We will confirm that Barnes is cooperating, but nothing beyond that,'' John S. Martin Jr., the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said when asked to comment.

FOR the Giants, a player who's not in uniform, Rob Carpenter, has emerged as more important this season than all those players who are. But even if Rob Carpenter were to be signed now, it's probably too late for the Giants to qualify for the Super Bowl playoffs in this strike - shortened nine-game season. After yesterday's 27-17 loss to the Washington Redskins, the Giants have an 0-3 record. Unless they win on Thanksgiving Day in Detroit, they will be 0-4 with three of their last five games on the road. Even if they do win Thursday, a 1-3 record is hardly a recommendation as a Super Bowl contender. Consider that if the new 16-team playoff format were applied to last year's standings after nine games, the Jets, at 4-4-1, would have earned the final berth.

On the eve of a special meeting today between Governor Carey and state legislative leaders, officials of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority stepped up their warnings that unless the Legislature came up with new money, subway, bus and commuter fares would go up next month. ''If the fares go up now, it will be on the backs of the Legislature,'' said City Council President Carol Bellamy, a member of the M.T.A. board. The M.T.A. chairman, Richard Ravitch, said that one way or another the agency would have to balance its budget as of Dec. 10. ''By law, our budget must be balanced, either through new state revenues, a fare increase or a combination of the two,'' Mr. Ravitch said.

President Reagan has tentatively approved a plan to pack 100 MX missiles armed with nuclear warheads into a narrow, 14-mile-long strip, White House officials said today. The officials, who declined to be quoted by name, said the President planned to announce his decision Monday afternoon. At Camp David today Mr. Reagan and his aides were reviewing his MX decision and he was working on an address on the military and arms control scheduled to be broadcast on television nationally at 8 o'clock Monday night.

Latin American economies, which have recorded growth rates of nearly 6 percent a year over the last decade, are facing a decline to 1.6 percent this year, according to the Inter-American Development Bank. A detailed, 409-page report on Latin America, released today by the 43-nation financing bank, also said that, over the last six years, Latin America has been troubled by growing trade deficits that show little sign of waning. ''As a result of the increased price of oil, a decline in the economic growth of Latin America's traditional trading partners and an almost universal maintenance within the region of overvalued exchange rates, growth of exports was outpaced by that of imports,'' the bank said. ''The growing trade deficit did not constrain internal demand in most of the countries of the region because import growth was increasingly fostered by the growth of foreign debt.''

An Associated Press dispatch in Business Day on Nov. 11 incorrectly reported the relationship between Air Canada and Altair Airlines. Air Canada's agreement with Altair called solely for the sale, for $20 million, of four DC-9's, one spare engine and assorted spare parts.

The Jets yesterday put on their full array of padding for the first time since the football strike ended, and then they whipped the Baltimore Colts so easily that it might have been a practice session. In fact, the Jets' 37-0 victory was the most lopsided shutout decision in the club's 23-year history. Because it was so clean and efficient, it gave a business-as-usual tone to Shea Stadium, where the fans greeted the New Yorkers as if there had not been a two-month interruption in their autumn. The game, though, looked like a game - fans cheered their heroes when they dashed onto the field, they booed a near-interception, they yelled for the winners to run up the score. Only at game's end, when players from both sides milled around the center of the field a bit more than usual, was there any sense that something unusual had occurred recently.

Almost a year after the declaration of martial law, the battle to save Poland's collapsing economy has reached a crucial point. In recent years, Poland's factories and farms have been producing less and less. Furthermore, without the money to meet payments on foreign debts that exceed $24 billion, Poland cannot afford to import vital machinery and raw materials from the West. The result has been a dwindling supply of food and lengthening lines outside shops. Nevertheless, production seems finally to have stabilized - albeit at a low level - and September actually saw the first increase in output in 25 months.