What was going on when I was born?

HERE is no one for whom it is easier to find a Christmas gift than a cook -with the exception, perhaps, of a small child. Cooks always have long wish lists. If they do not covet the newest in food processors, they yearn for a year-round source of fresh herbs. If they do not seek equipment to make their small kitchens more efficient, they are extolling the virtues of a new kind of vinegar.

Buoyed by heavy buying from pension funds and other large institutions, the Dow Jones industrial average yesterday soared 36.43 points, its fourth-biggest one-day gain in history. At the close, the Dow stood at 1,039.28. Most of the jump in the average came after 2:30 P.M. when it was up 10.03 points. ''Institutional investors, who had recently lessened their participation in the market, came back with renewed vigor today and bought the recently depressed large capitalization stocks,'' said Stephen S. Weisglass, president of Ladenburg & Thalmann & Company.

International President Reagan arrived in Brazil to put his personal endorsement on improved ties between the United States and Latin America's largest country. Brasilia is the first stop on Mr. Reagan's five-day, four-nation Latin American journey. (Page A1, Col. 5.) Moderate policies in Spain were pledged by Felipe Gonzales, who said his new Cabinet would pursue a domestic policy of austerity and would review military ties to the United States and NATO. In a 70-minute address to Parliament, Mr. Gonzalez outlined a posture as cautious as the men he has carefully picked for the first Socialist Cabinet since the Spanish Civil War. (A10:3-4.)

President Reagan conceded he has given up any hope of persuading Congress to advance next July's 10 percent income tax cut. Before leaving on his five-day Latin-American trip, Mr. Reagan listed his priorities for the special session of Congress now under way. He said he still favors moving up the tax cut, but will probably have to work to keep Congress from repealing it. (Page A1.) The index of leading economic indicators rose just 0.2 percent in October, the Commerce Department reported. Earlier, it had incorrectly put the increase at 0.6 percent. Officials said that sharp rises in stock prices and building permits had more than offset declines in liquid assets and orders for new consumer goods. (D1.)

The index of leading economic indicators, which is intended to forecast trends in the economy, rose two-tenths of 1 percent in October, the Commerce Department reported today. The rise in the index, the sixth in the last seven months, was paced by big increases in two of its 10 components - stock prices and building permits. These were more than enough to offset drops in two other components -liquid assets and consumer goods orders. Because of an error in calculation, the department announced earlier in the day that the index had risen a more encouraging sixtenths of 1 percent. The error concerned one component of the index - orders for new consumer goods. The original report said such orders were down slightly in October, but in the corrected version they had declined sharply.

The Westchester Parkway Commission today recommended a $73 million reconstruction of the Hutchinson River Parkway that would widen it to six lanes from the present four lanes for a distance of 7.4 miles, from Eastchester to Harrison. The commission issued its recommendation to the State Transportation Department, which will make the final decision. After today's announcement, Albert E. Dickson, a regional official of the Transportation Department, which has been studying the proposals and holding hearings on them for several years, said his agency hoped to make its final selection within two weeks.

Columbia Pictures Industries, CBS Inc. and Home Box Office announced plans yesterday to create a motion picture company that they hope will blossom into one of Hollywood's major studios. The three companies said the yet-unnamed studio would be equally owned and financed by them, but would be run by an independent management team. Although the three partners did not specify the amount to be invested in the new studio, they said it would run into hundreds of millions of dollars. The venture brings together three strong but quite different partners, each of which expects to derive different advantages from the new studio, which is expected to begin operations early next year.

Israeli soldiers who hold front-line positions near here, 400 yards from Syrian troops, are preparing for winter. Underground bunkhouses accommodating an infantry squad have been built. Heavy clothing has been issued. The Syrians are still in summer uniforms. They have apparently made no preparations for a winter that usually means heavy rains, snow and cold.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy told close advisers tonight that he would not run for the Presidency in 1984. Larry Horowitz, administrative assistant to the Massachusetts Democrat, said late tonight that the Senator would hold a news conference on Capitol Hill Wednesday ''to discuss his plans for 1984.'' Another close adviser, who asked that his name not be used, said in an interview that while the Senator had not said so directly, his comments indicated that he feared that any campaign he waged would not focus on the sort of Democratic issues he believed in, but instead would turn out to be a referendum on his character. Most Surprised by Decision Some aides have been suggesting that it was a distinct possibility that the Senator would not run, but it came as a surprise to politicians in general. The preparations his staff had made for a possible campaign had led most Democrats to feel confident that he would run for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1984.

Members of the state's Municipal Assistance Corporation yesterday called on Governor Carey, Governor-elect Mario M. Cuomo and legislative leaders to put aside the partisan ''pressures'' of political life and work together to solve the budget deficits of the state, the city and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The members said they wanted to express their ''grave concern'' over the budget difficulties and the likelihood that the problems would only worsen if solutions were not found promptly. They said that tax increases and reduced work forces were inevitable, and that both the city and the state would probably have to renegotiate labor contracts recently agreed to.

A picture caption in some copies of Business Day Monday, with an article about Music Television, incorrectly identified people shown in an interview. Alan Hunter of MTV was interviewing Brian O'Neil of the Bus Boys.

If living well is indeed the best revenge, then across New Jersey this week there are thousands of people who harbor dreams of getting even. They are lining up in sweet shops and delicatessens and liquor stores to buy a chance at winning $8.6 million in the state lottery, a prize that officials say is the largest ever offered by any lottery agency in the country. The agents and vendors who sell the tickets report that their customers have been seized by a kind of fever, and that, along with half-eaten doughnuts and cups of coffee, their lunch counters are littered with fantasies. A Huge Sign ''I'll tell you what I'm going to do if I win,'' said Ralph Iovino, the owner of Fred's Party Shop here. ''I'm going to put a rocking chair across the street, open the doors, knock out the windows and have a huge sign made that reads, 'Everything in the store free, help yourself.' ''