What was going on when I was born?

International Israel's Cabinet was unable to make a decision on a state commission's recommendations Tuesday that Defense Minister Ariel Sharon and three senior generals leave their posts because of their ''indirect responsibility'' for the massacre of Palestinians by Lebanese Christian militiamen in Beirut. The Cabinet members agreed that two of the generals could defend themselves before the Cabinet today. (Page A1, Column 6.) American Jewish spokesmen backed the report by Israel's special commission on the massacre of Palestinians in Beirut. Most of those interviewed agreed reluctantly that Defense Minister Sharon should resign or be dismissed. (A12:1-2.)

Gov. William A. O'Neill asked the General Assembly today to lower Connecticut's sales tax to 7 percent from 7.5 percent, but to expand the tax to cover a wider range of goods and services. Aides to the Governor said the effect of the lower rate and broader base would be $210 million in additional revenue over 15 months to help balance his proposed $3.58 billion budget for the 1984 fiscal year, beginning July 1. Mr. O'Neill asked for, among other proposals, a 3.5 percent sales tax on professional and personal services, ranging from those of doctors and lawyers to those of plumbers and barbers. The services are now exempt.

Gunmen forced their way into the Aga Khan's stud farm in Newbridge, Ireland, during the night Tuesday and kidnapped Shergar, one of the world's top thoroughbred racing horses. They demanded a ransom of $2.7 million. Racing experts said it was the first recorded kidnapping of a stallion at stud. Shergar, a 5-year-old dark bay with white socks and a white blaze, was the winner in 1981 of the Irish Sweeps Derby and the English Derby. That year he was voted European race horse of the year.

The Going Out Guide last Saturday incorrectly gave the date for ''Mean Mothers,'' a film about women in jazz and blues. It is set for 8 and 10 P.M. on Saturday at the Collective for Living Cinema, 52 White Street, between Broadway and Church Street.

Anne M. Gorsuch, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, said today that the dismissal of Rita M. Lavelle as assistant administrator was a personnel matter that did not involve political favoritism to polluting companies. But at least three subcommittees of the House of Representatives were pressing investigations into whether political considerations and favors to industry played a role in the agency's enforcement of the law requiring the cleanup of hazardous waste dumps. One of the sites involved is the Stringfellow Acid Pits near Riverside, Calif. The agency has been accused of delaying cleanup of the site last year for political reasons, an allegation it denies. Congress Charged Mrs. Gorsuch Stanley Brand, chief counsel to the House clerk, said the circumstances surrounding the dismissal of Miss Lavelle tended to substantiate the suspicions that led Congress to cite Mrs. Gorsuch for contempt of Congress last year when she refused to hand over subpoenaed documents relating to whether the agency was enforcing the hazardous waste dump law properly.

Many of the nation's bankers have been trekking to Washington in recent weeks seeking Government assistance in case some of their third world borrowers become effectively bankrupt. In making their appeals, before Congress and Government regulators, the banks find that they are stirring old and deep resentments. The resentments are rarely expressed openly. But they have been implicit in such comments to bankers as ''Why shouldn't banks take a loss? Or should it only be the American taxpayer that takes a loss?'' that have been heard in recent Congressional debate over legislative responses to the crisis.

After a day of intensive back-room bargaining, Israel's Cabinet failed again tonight to agree on whether to carry out a state commission's recommendations that Defense Minister Ariel Sharon and three top generals leave their posts. The ministers, reportedly considering several courses of action including new elections, scheduled another meeting for Thursday. They did decide to grant a request from two of the generals, Maj. Gen. Yehoshua Saguy, Director of Military Intelligence, and Brig. Gen. Amos Yaron, division commander in the Beirut area, to defend themselves before the full Cabinet on Thursday before any decision is made. 'Indirect Responsibility' The commission, headed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Yitzhak Kahan, issued findings Tuesday that Israel's top civilian and military officials bore ''indirect responsibility'' for the massacre last September of Palestinians in Beirut refugee camps by Lebanese Christian Phalangist militiamen. The report criticized Prime Minister Menachem Begin and other officials for failing to anticipate a massacre when the Israeli Army ordered the Phalangists into the camps.

HAVING your apartment or home painted is like having a tooth pulled - very uncomfortable but worth it once it stops hurting. Despite the chaos and disruption it often causes, painting the rooms, if done properly, can be one of the least expensive and most satisfying decorative changes you can make in your home. But people considering a professional painter should first focus on how much they are willing to spend and how long they are willing to wait for the work to be finished. As the designer Noel Jeffrey says, it is imperative for the client to be honest with himself. Neil Janovic, vice president of Janovic/Plaza Paints and Papers, advises would-be clients to be certain of exactly what they expect from a painter before they set out to look for him.

The General Motors Corporation announced today that it would recall 240,000 of its 1980 X-model automobiles to modify their reportedly defective braking systems. The announcement came a year and a half after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration conducted preliminary tests indicating that the brakes of the X-models, which have front-wheel drive, had a tendency to lock in wet weather. It also came five days before the beginning of an official agency hearing on the problem. In a brief announcement, the company said it was recalling the 240,000 cars ''for modification to the braking system to improve braking characteristics.'' A previous recall on these models, in 1981, involved 47,000 autos.

''I'm a Yankee fan.'' - Steve Kantrowitz, an applicant to Yale. ''That's all right.

LONDON BERNARD NEVILL has been collecting since he was a child, and he has apparently never parted with anything. At first glance, the interior of his Chelsea house looks like one overwhelming hodgepodge. But despite appearances he is a discriminating collector and has never bought anything haphazardly. ''I do sometimes think it's a pity that there are some things one can't collect,'' he said with a rather sheepish grin after taking a visitor on a tour of his five-floor home. Each of the 15 rooms is crammed - mostly with late-Victorian and Pre-Raphaelite furnishings and artifacts, which Mr. Neville has accumulated over the last 30 years. Of his passion for collecting he says simply, ''It is a disease.''

The Budd Company, the only United States manufacturer of subway cars, yesterday dropped its six-month effort to penalize the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for its purchase of 825 subway cars from Canada. A coalition of labor unions said that it would independently pursue the matter before the International Trade Commission, but it was unclearyesterday whether its petition would be accepted. The decision by Budd to withdraw its effort came less than a month before the Trade Commission was to make a final determination on the penalty. Last week, the Commerce Department, ruling that the subway car deal had included an illegal Canadian government subsidy of $91.2 million, set the penalty at that amount.