What was going on when I was born?

A dispatch from San Salvador Nov. 3 about Ambassador Deane R. Hin- ton's views on aid to El Salvador in- correctly identified an organization that took out newspaper advertise- ments attacking him. It was the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of El Salvador.

President Reagan will probably agree to a special package of contingency tax increases to be put into effect in 1985 and thereafter if Federal budget deficits are not declining sharply enough, Administration officials said today. The tax proposal, which officials said would raise $40 billion to $50 billion over a three-year period, was made to the President at a meeting with his top economic advisers this morning. If approved by Mr. Reagan, the contingency plan would be submitted to Congress as part of the President's budget proposal for the 1984 fiscal year. The President will submit his budget to Congress at the end of January.

Armco Inc., the nation's fifth-largest steel producer, announced yesterday that it was discontinuing some operations at three plants in Missouri, Ohio and Texas, resulting in a permanent loss of 2,200 jobs and contributing to a fourth-quarter loss of about $180 million. The company, based in Middletown, Ohio, is closing its coke-making operations in New Miami, Ohio -which have been suspended since May - as well as most of its carbon-steelmaking facility in Houston and its carbon-steel products operation in Kansas City, Mo. Carbon steel is used in automobiles, appliances, ships and construction materials. Harry Holiday, Armco's chairman and chief executive officer, attributed the closings to the ''worldwide recession and its impact on our economy.''

The United States Justice Department has been investigating members of the Puerto Rican police force in connection with murders, kidnappings, narcotics trafficking and the theft of $1.3 million in gold, according to Puerto Rican officials close to the inquiry. Senior law-enforcement officials in Washington said the investigators had found evidence of ''broad and significant police corruption'' and are now presenting it to a Federal grand jury here. The inquiry, covering the last two years, was carried out by a special 15-member Justice Department task force with the cooperation of the Bureau of Special Investigations of the Commonwealth's Department of Justice. It began, the Federal officials said, as an investigation of the slaying of a murder witness, and was initially requested by Puerto Rico's Governor and Police Superintendent.

Ten days ago, New York City's economic forecasters, faced with a sluggish economy, reduced by $30 million their estimates of how much the city would receive this year from the financial-corporation tax. Then last week, President Reagan signed into law a measure that will bring the city a lump-sum payment of almost $18 million for having provided police protection for diplomats on visits to New York in recent years. A loss of $30 million, a gain of about $18 million - that's the way it has been going for the Koch administration, which has found itself in the midst of the city's most difficult financial problems since the mid-1970's. Computers and Coffee The actions Mr. Koch has taken to close the ever-growing holes in his budget, including a plan to lay off thousands of workers and raise taxes, will eventually affect everyone who works and lives in New York. But the first tremors have already reached the people who toil in the city's Office of Management and Budget.

The New York Yankees cannot play next season's first three scheduled home games in Denver instead of in Yankee Stadium, a judge ruled yesterday in a lawsuit that had been brought by New York City. The ruling by Acting Justice Richard S. Lane of State Supreme Court in Manhattan halted plans by George M. Steinbrenner, the Yankees' principal owner, to have the baseball team play the games, beginning April 11, in Denver's Mile High Stadium. Justice Lane wrote: ''The Yankee pin stripes belong to New York like Central Park, like the Statue of Liberty, like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, like the Metropolitan Opera, like the Stock Exchange, like the lights of Broadway, etc. Collectively they are 'The Big Apple.' Any loss represents a diminution of the quality of life here, a blow to the city's standing at the top, however narcissistic that perception may be.''

A rare public board of inquiry opened a five-day hearing today to evaluate whether the drug Depo-Provera is an almost ideal contraceptive for women - or a potential cause of cancer, birth defects and other disease. The drug is already used in more than 80 countries and is enthusiastically endorsed by population control groups because a single injection prevents ovulation and conception for at least three months. Dr. Elizabeth B. Connell, professor of gynecology and obstetrics at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, told the board today that she had polled 20 experts and found that they ranked Depo-Provera ahead of all other contraceptives, including the pill, intrauterine devices, the condom and diaphragm. At a news conference held earlier, she said that Depo-Provera ''comes very very close to the ideal'' contraceptive. The drug's chief virtues, according to its adherents, are that it is highly effective, remains effective even if the user is a few weeks late in obtaining a repeat injection, and requires less motivation than the pill, which must be taken daily, or barrier contraceptives, which must be applied at the time of intercourse. The drug can be administered by any person who normally gives injections in a health care system.

President Reagan complained today that news ''leaks'' were disrupting work on the budget and other matters and directed that White House staff members get clearance before discussing certain matters with reporters. ''I've had it up to my keister with these leaks,'' Mr. Reagan was reported to have told aides today, using a slang word for rump. His comment was given out by David R. Gergen, the White House director of communications. Under a new set of ''Guidelines for Press Coordination,'' Mr. Gergen's office is to designate a small number of White House aides to answer reporters' questions on certain subjects. Staff members not designated must receive clearance from his office before answering questions on those subjects.

Last Saturday, Debra Anne Rollins borrowed skis and boots, left her two young children at home and joined her husband, Kevin, to go skiing for the first time in years. Mrs. Rollins enjoyed her morning on the slopes at Alta, a nearby resort in this ski area southeast of Salt Lake City. But the afternoon was not so pleasant; she spent most of it in the Snowbird Sports Medicine Clinic with two broken bones in her left leg. There, Dr. John R. Merendino and Dr. Paul Pilgram tried for several hours, without success, to set the complex fractures before sending her on for more definitive treatment at Utah Valley Hospital in nearby Provo, where the 27-year-old dancing instructor lives. Mrs. Rollins is among approximately 2,000 skiers, from beginner to expert level, whose injuries are expected to be treated at the clinic here this year. In the rest of the world, skiing injuries requiring medical attention mount into the tens of thousands.

Expectations of lower interest rates and a stronger economy propelled the Dow Jones industrial average ahead 16.28 points yesterday, to a closing record of 1,092.35. It was the third consecutive session in which the blue-chip average ended at a new high. In the overall market, advancing issues on the New York Stock Exchange outscored stocks that declined by a ratio of more than 2 to 1. Trading continued heavy, at 101.9 million shares, although this was lower than Friday's 127.3 million. The brisk turnover again reflected activity by cash-laden pension funds, mutual funds and other institutional investors .

International Upholding the Salvadoran regime, Administration officials said that President Reagan planned to certify to Congress within a few weeks that Salvador was making progress in human rights and political and economic changes despite the military crisis generated by the rebellion of a Salvadoran province commander. (Page A8, Columns 1-3.) Philip C. Habib met with President Reagan and then left for the Middle East to try to end a stalemate over an agenda that has snarled negotiations on an Israeli troop withdrawal from Lebanon. (A3:4-6.)

A Federal judge today temporarily enjoined public schools in New Jersey from beginning each day with a one-minute period of silence. The restraining order is valid until next Tuesday, when a hearing will be held to determine if the practice violates the United States Constitution. The judge, Dickinson R. Debevoise of Federal District Court, acted after reviewing in his chambers a complaint and affidavits provided by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey as part of a suit by the organization against the new law mandating the minute of silence. The A.C.L.U. said the statute was ''a subterfuge for avoiding a Supreme Court ban on prayer in the public schools.'' The order signed by Judge Debevoise said: ''Public Law 1982, Chapter 205 is unconstitutional on its face and as applied in that it violates the First and 14th Amendments to the United States Constitution and that immediate and irreparable injury will result to plaintiffs pending a hearing on an application for a preliminary injunction.''