What was going on when I was born?

An article in SportsMonday yesterday about the International Professional Ice Skating Championships incorrectly suggested the rarity of the $100,000 in prize money offered there. Such sums, or more, have been offered at other figure skating events in the United States, most recently the World Professional Figure Skating Championship held last Friday in Landover, Md.

International OPEC ministers failed to agree on the key issue of production ceilings for members of the oil group at a two-day meeting in Vienna. Some industry observers at the conference said a decline of oil prices early next year now seems likely. (Page A1, Column 4.) The ousted Nicaraguan Ambassador to the United States said his country was threatened by a ''leftist dictatorship'' that censored the press and curbed political freedoms. (A1:3-4.)

Francisco Fiallos Navarro, who was removed over the weekend as Nicaraguan Ambassador to the United States, said today that his nation was threatened by a ''leftist dictatorship'' that censored the press and limited political freedoms. At the same time, Mr. Fiallos said that the policy of the Reagan Administration in Central America was wrong and that the United States should stop supporting covert military activities against Nicaragua. At times as the 36-year-old diplomat spoke at a news conference at the Ambassador's official residence, his eyes grew moist. He Called for Change ''The love for my people, the reverence for my country and the most elemental sentiment of personal dignity could not allow me to go on representing a Government that has forbidden me to express my ideas and my feelings to the Nicaraguan people,'' he said quietly.

OLYMPIA, Wash. EVERGREEN State College's methods and atmosphere have been described as ''survivors of the 1960's,'' born of the the turmoil and educational reformism of the day. But its president, Dan Evans argues that Evergreen is not at all a throwback to the 60's, as its reputation implies; rather that it is an institution which has ''taken the best of what we heard back then'' and responded by paying more attention to the individual student. Whatever the case, survival has not come easily for the college, where grades have been replaced by written evaluations, where students design their own courses and where political activists, health food enthusiasts and alternative-energy advocates abound.

White Plains Post Road is aglow this holiday season with the festive brake lights of motorists happening upon the megawatt wonder that is the Prisco family's outdoor Christmas display. ''Santa won't have any trouble finding this house,'' Denise Dombrowsky, a passer-by, said to her 5-year-old son, Alex. Not to mention intelligence satellites and nonstop flights from London to Chicago. This is a time in the suburbs for hauling out the ladder and wrapping the bushes in lights - which seem rarely to work from one year to the next - or perhaps stringing them along the gutters. It is also a time for evening family outings to view the outdoor decorations that others have erected. As in all things, some residents carry the decorating tradition a little further than others, to the great joy of many, the bemusement of others and the absolute mortification of a few neighbors.

The White House announced shortly after midnight that President Reagan would sign an emergency spending bill to provide money for a large segment of the Federal Government that technically ran out of funds at midnight Friday. Meanwhile, the President won his Senate battle for a 5-cent-agallon increase in the gasoline tax early this morning. A vote of 56 to 34 sent the bill to a House-Senate conference. The House had already recessed for the night. (Page D29.)

A bill that would have increased New Jersey's income tax for people earning more than $50,000 a year was approved by the Legislature tonight, but Governor Kean vetoed it minutes later. The veto, however, is not effective until it is delivered to the bill's house of origin, in this case the Assembly. Speaker Alan J. Karcher, Democrat of Sayreville and the tax bill's chief sponsor in the lower house, adjourned the Assembly until Jan. 11, when Mr. Kean is scheduled to deliver his 1983 State of the State Message. But Mr. Kean said he would call the Legislature back into session next week, after the Christmas holiday, so he could formally complete his veto of what he termed ''this political charade,'' and get some action on an alternative tax proposal.

The National Transportation Safety Board said yesterday that a special inquiry into the training of air traffic controllers had ''revealed some specific safety problems which the board believes require immediate corrective action'' by the Federal Aviation Administration. The board voiced particular concern about its findings that new controllers hired to replace those dismissed after the strike in August 1981 were immediately being used to train other recruits without undergoing formal training as instructors. The aviation agency was urged to ''cancel immediately'' a one-year waiver it issued last May that permits such practices at airport towers and other facilities that do not have the resources for ''administering appropriate training courses.'' Training Turnaround Assailed ''In some instances,'' the safety board report said, ''developmental controllers were certified on a position in the morning and were conducting on-the-job training at that same control position for another developmental controller in the afternoon of the same day.''

The State Senate passed a regional sales tax increase Monday night that Republican legislative leaders said was a way to save the current bus, subway and commuter-rail fares. That tax had previously been rejected by the Democrats, however, and early today both sides met in an effort to find a compromise. Shortly after the measure was passed, by a vote of 33 to 18, Governor Carey called a meeting in his office with Governor-elect Mario M. Cuomo and legislative leaders. The Assembly on Thursday had passed a payroll tax designed to save the fares.

With all his flair, Rubinstein nevertheless was a pure musician. An appreciation by Harold C. Schonberg, page D22. Arthur Rubinstein, one of the greatest pianists of the century, died quietly in his sleep at his home in Geneva yesterday. He was 95 years old. For about 85 of those years he had been playing the piano in public, and he lived to see himself win the highest acclaim. He started at the age of 3, made his debut shortly thereafter, and was still playing until about five years ago.

MOHONK LAKE, N.Y. THEY are not made of clay but the mountains are crumbling. Research scientists say that both man and nature are threatening the delicately balanced and fragile ecosystems of the upper reaches and terraces of the world - from the cloud-wreathed Himalayas to the green peaks of the tropical rain forests. The clear air and beauty of these highland regions, which make up one-fifth of the earth's surface, have long inspired adventurers to explore their crags and homesteaders to settle in their secluded vales. Thrust upward eons ago by the slow-paced clashing of the earth's crustal plates or by fiery volcanoes beneath, mountains and their fields and forests have become spiritual symbols not only of earth's beauty but also of its strength and endurability. But as a result of increasing pressures put on them by man in collaboration with the often violent forces of nature at such altitudes, many of these areas are losing their ability to sustain and nourish plant and animal life at a rate that threatens the forms and conditions of their own existence. Moreover, these accelerating changes, which manifest themselves principally in various forms of severe erosion, also theaten the existence of hundreds of mountain communities.

Oil ministers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries ended a frustrating two-day conference today unable to agree on the crucial issue of production quotas for individual members. The group did agree to raise its official production ceiling to a total of 18.5 million barrels a day, from the largely ignored 17.5 million limit set last March. The adjustment was an attempt to bring the official level more closely in line with actual production, currently estimated at 19.5 million barrels. They also reaffirmed their commitment to the $34-a-barrel base price - a level set in October 1981 but undercut both on the spot market and by members offering discounts, as an oversupply of oil developed. But without allocating production among the countries, analysts believe it is virtually impossible for OPEC to enforce the overall production limit intended to defend that official price.