What was going on when I was born?

Chief Justice Warren E. Burger today asked Congress to create a court with judges temporarily borrowed from other Federal courts as an experiment in easing the Supreme Court's workload. The new panel would decide issues on which any two of the 13 United States Courts of Appeals reached conflicting decisions, eliminating the need for the Supreme Court to resolve the conflicts. Conflicting decisions among the Federal appeals courts provide the single biggest source of cases that the Supreme Court decides every year. While the Court is not required to accept such cases, it feels obliged to do so in many cases to avoid different meanings in different parts of the country for a Federal law or a constitutional provision.

Corporate profits continued to deteriorate in the fourth quarter of 1982 as the recession aggravated normal cyclical declines in industries such as oil, steel, chemicals, autos and forest products. The deterioration continues a downward trend for corporate earnings since peaking in 1979. All of the results are not in yet - the auto companies and major retailers such as Sears, Roebuck & Company have yet to report - but the picture that is emerging is not good, although it could have been worse. ''Fourth quarter after-tax profits for the entire corporate sector are likely to be in the $116 billion range, a drop of more than 20 percent from year-earlier levels,'' said Donald Ratajczak, director of economic forecasting at Georgia State University.

China said today that the visit of Secretary of State George P. Shultz had clarified relations with the United States ''to some extent'' but that longstanding differences remained over Taiwan and other issues. A report by the New China News Agency, quoting unnamed Chinese ''informed sources,'' offered Peking's version of the talks only hours after Mr. Shultz departed this morning for South Korea. The official press agency reiterated virtually all of China's complaints about the United States, including its unhappiness with American support for Taiwan and with what were termed ''discriminatory and restrictive policies'' in Chinese-American trade. U.S. Mideast Policy Assailed Paraphrasing the remarks of Chinese officials at the talks with Mr. Shultz, the press agency said Washington and Peking held similar views on the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia and arms control. But it said China held the United States responsible for Israel's ''aggression and expansion'' in the Middle East and was critical of American support for South Africa's policy toward South-West Africa.

State universities across the country are raising admission requirements and many state education agencies are stiffening standards for high school diplomas to emphasize stronger preparation for college. The trend, mainly affecting high school students headed for college, reverses more than a decade of loosened standards. It is expected to make it harder for students without proper academic background to get into some state universities, many of which are shifting away from open admission policies. The movement is a reaction to widespread public dissatisfaction with the general achievement levels of high school graduates. Many educators say the graduates are not ready for either college or jobs.

Prof. Homer H. Clarke Jr. of the University of Colorado Law School recently set out to revise his textbook, ''Domestic Relations in the United States,'' only to find that he had to rewrite it. ''In the 15 years since that book came out, very little of family law remains unchanged,'' he said. ''There's been a complete revolution.'' A similar problem confronted Prof. Harry D. Krause of the University of Illinois Law School, when he decided to update his study guides in family law, published in 1976. ''After only seven years,'' he said, ''I'm throwing out practically everything. It's not a revision, it's almost a complete redo.''

Operating cautiously but methodically, Yuri V. Andropov has succeeded in less than three months in giving a distinct new shape to Soviet government. As a result, those Russians who argued that the change of command after Leonid I. Brezhnev's death last November would bring more of the same have been obliged to take note as Mr. Andropov has begun to stir the stagnation that had accumulated at every level of Soviet life. The most dramatic evidence of change has been the campaign for labor productivity and discipline, announced by Mr. Andropov in his first major speech on Nov. 22. ''You cannot get things done by slogans alone,'' he warned.

After a Connecticut hazardous-waste disposal company came under Federal and state investigation last fall, it stepped up shipments of chemicals to its plant in Illinois, according to the plant's former manager. Many shipments, he said, arrived in drums that were leaking or mislabeled. The manager, William R. Smith, said that he had known his plant was receiving ''bad loads'' from the facility in Waterbury, Conn., but that under company policy as he understood it, ''we had no choice.'' Mr. Smith made his charges in a report to the company, Environmental Waste Removal Inc., and then resigned on Dec. 31. The owners of Environmental Waste Removal denied that they had increased shipments to their Illinois plant, in Coal City, or that they had known of any improper procedures. They said that they had asked Mr. Smith to write his report after they heard his complaints and that ''anything that needed to be cleared up was done.''

''We can no longer tolerate the vacuous notion that we can get along with the present structure 'because we have always done it that way.' '' -Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, calling for a new Federal court. (B6:5.)

New York Democratic leaders, concerned about what they describe as a tradition of disarray at national party conventions, are making plans to exert greater influence over the choice of the 1984 Democratic Presidential nominee. Discussions have begun about placing either Governor Cuomo or Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan on the state primary ballot as a ''favorite son'' candidate who could utilize the state's large block of delegates in bargaining at the party's national convention. The Democrats are also considering moving the state's primary date to March and they have already decided to sponsor a series of ''Presidential forums'' for candidates around the state. 'A Special Opportunity' ''We are the largest Democratic state in the United States at the moment,'' the Governor said yesterday. ''We have therefore a special obligation to the Democratic Party and to the nation. We also have a special opportunity for our own state. I think it would be good if we could remain unified as a state.''

International The status of Taiwan was among issues that still concern Peking despite China's official announcement that the visit of Secretary of State George P. Shultz had clarified relations with the United States ''to some extent.'' After Mr. Shultz's visit had ended, China's official press agency reiterated virtually all of Peking's complaints about the United States, ranging from restrictive policies in Chinese-American trade to United States support for Taiwan. (Page A1, Column 4.) The Soviet Government is changing and taking a new shape under Yuri A. Andropov, successor to Leonid I. Breznhev. In less than three months in offfice the Soviet leader has begun to stir the stagnation that had accumulated at every level of government. His drive focuses on labor productivity and discipline. (A1:5.)

In what is perhaps the most critical transaction in Larry Brown's two-year tenure as coach, the Nets obtained Michael Ray Richardson, the former Knick guard, from Golden State tonight. They sent Mickey Johnson, the ninth-year forward, and Eric (Sleepy) Floyd, the rookie guard who was a first-round draft selection, to the Warriors in a deal that had been rumored for several days. It was not completed until 9:15 this evening when Bob MacKinnon, the Nets' general manager, and Bob Bestor, a Warrior official, confirmed the trade in a conference telephone call with an official of the National Basketball Association. In Richardson, who was traded to the Warriors by the Knicks just before the start of the season for Bernard King, the Nets obtained a former all-star who will strengthen their backcourt. Primarily, he gives the Nets the tall guard - he is 6 feet 5 inches - that they need to counter some of the other strong backcourts in the league.

Corporate profits deteriorated further in the fourth quarter of 1982. Particularly affected were the cyclically depressed steel, oil, auto and forest products industries. Analysts forecast that, over all, after-tax profits for the quarter should be down 20 percent from a year earlier, to $116 billion. (Page D1.)