What was going on when I was born?

The Reagan Administration and a key House subcommittee chairman reached agreement tonight on procedures to allow subcommittee members to see subpoenaed Environmental Protection Agency documents. Representative Elliott H. Levitas, Democrat of Georgia, the chairman of the subcommittee, said that if the Administration abided by the agreement, he would eventually ask the House to vote to drop its Dec. 16 citation of Anne M. Gorsuch, the E.P.A. chief, for contempt of Congress. On President Reagan's orders, she had refused to surrender documents on which he claimed executive privilege. Other Disputes Continuing While the agreement with the Levitas subcommittee, which had subpoenaed the documents, seems likely to resolve the first contempt of Congress citation against an executive branch official in the nation's history, it does not end the disputes between the Administration and other House subcommittees that have subpeonaed E.P.A. documents. At least one subcommittee is demanding more complete possession of the documents than the Administration agreed to tonight, and it is threatening new contempt proceedings if the Administration refuses the demand.

Two Libyan MIG-23 fighter planes were chased away from the carrier Nimitz this week by the ship's F-14's, Reagan Administration officials said today. The incident occurred as the Nimitz, which carries about 90 planes, was moving in the eastern Mediterranean near Libya. An Administration official said, ''It was not unusual to have aircraft from unfriendly nations see how close they can get to our carriers,'' adding, ''The Russians do it all the time.'' Word of the incident came as a delegation of Pentagon officials arrived in Cairo amid continued tensions in the region over Libya's military activities. The Administration has sent Awacs surveillance planes to Egypt because of worries about Libyan military threats against the Sudan, which angrily criticized Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the Libyan leader, today.

A gallery substantially larger than the biggest floor of the Whitney Museum of American Art will open next fall in the new International Business Machines Corporation headquarters at Madison Avenue and 57th Street. The corporation is creating a gallery to be used for major traveling shows, not just in art but in science and technology, that would not otherwise come to New York. The existence of such a large exhibition area - 13,000 square feet - under the aegis of I.B.M. has raised fears that the corporation could outbid New York museums for large traveling shows and, more importantly, drain money and energy from I.B.M.'s heretofore generous support of museum exhibitions around the country. 'No Impact on Funding' ''The gallery is going to have no impact on our funding of cultural programs,'' said William Whalley, a spokesman for the corporation.

Around the country a cloud of gloom hangs over the general agricultural economy, but a close examination reveals a picture with many bright spots among the shadows and many shades of gray. Often, farmers thrive alongside others who are teetering on the edge of disaster and still others who are merely getting by. That is the picture emerging from visits with farmers in this area, talks with others throughout the nation and interviews with country bankers, Government officials and agricultural economists. Over all, farms are in the worst economic condition since the 1930's. Total farm income was more than a third lower last year than it was as recently as 1979. Thousands of farmers have gone into bankruptcy and thousands of others have been forced to leave the land to earn a living. But some farmers are profiting handsomely.

The state-owned British National Oil Corporation today proposed to its customers a $3-a-barrel cut in the price of North Sea crude oil. Norway quickly matched the cut, and rumors swirled that some OPEC producers were poised for similar actions. The anticipated price cut, which follows earlier reductions by the Soviet Union, Egypt, and others, was marginally less than earlier market predictions of between $3.50 and $4 a barrel.. But ever since Saudi Arabia's oil minister, Sheik Ahmed Zaki Yamani, predicted the North Sea action after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries failed to agree last month on a pricing policy, analysts have awaited the development as a major test of OPEC's ability to keep a downward adjustment of prices from accelerating into a free-for-all. Small Impact on Consumers The North Sea price reductions, by themselves, are expected to have little impact on retail gasoline prices in the United States, but if they are followed by other major producing countries, a continued decline in consumer prices is regarded as certain. Analysts generally calculate that gasoline prices fall 2 1/2 cents a gallon for every $1-a-barrel cut in the price of crude oil. (Page 39.)

The Inspector General of the Environmental Protection Agency has said he was unable to show whether almost one third of the $180 million committed to cleaning up the nation's toxic waste dumps last year was spent correctly. In a critical draft report completed a week ago and made public today by the chairmen of two House subcommittees, the E.P.A. Inspector General, Matthew N. Novick, said he had been unable to show that $53.6 million was spent for its intended purpose. The Inspector General's report contained no allegations of illegal activities or specific regulatory failures. Rusty Brashear, a spokesman for the agency, said the report ''in no way reflects the operation'' of the program.

The former head of the Sentry Armored Car Courier Company in the Bronx was indicted yesterday on charges of stealing more than $346,000 from clients' accounts and misappropriating $29 million in a scheme to obtain illegal bank-interest payments. The official, John Jennings, was one of four people indicted by a Bronx grand jury on charges of theft and misuse of funds at Sentry, which has gone out of business. All of the defendants pleaded not guilty. John Finnerty, a vice president of the Hudson Valley National Bank of Yonkers, was indicted on a misdemeanor charge of aiding Mr. Jennings in misappropriating $29 million held by the Sentry company for customers. The bank itself was not implicated in the reputed scheme.

The civil war in El Salvador, now three years old, is being waged in cycles. Each begins with an announcement on the clandestine rebel radio station that a new offensive is imminent. Guerrillas, followed by Government troops, then sweep through the countryside and, in a matter of weeks, return to base camps and barracks, leaving behind burned-out buildings and fresh graves. In the latest cycle, the war came home to 70,000 civilians and 11 towns in the provinces of Usulutan and Morazan. By last week the fighting appeared to have ebbed and the civilians were resuming what passes for normalcy in this country.

The American Embassy has asked the Salvadoran armed forces to cooperate in finding an American freelance writer and two Swedish journalists who left the capital Monday morning.

Soviet officials held a news conference here today to announce a proposal presented Thursday at the talks on limiting conventional forces in Central Europe. The proposal called for the withdrawal of 20,000 Soviet troops and 13,000 Americans pending further agreements. Viktor G. Komplektov, Deputy Foreign Minister responsible for United States affairs, described the offer as ''new in principle, simple and practical'' and one that would breach the ''figures barrier'' that has impeded the talks in Vienna for almost 10 years. Mr. Komplektov announced the Soviet move at a news conference at which he was joined by Col. Gen. Nikolai F. Chervov, who has emerged as a military spokesman on disarmament matters.

The security police shot and killed a man today who had tried to hijack a domestic flight carrying 34 passengers. The official Czech press agency said the man, Marian Pesko, 26 years old, attacked a female flight attendant on the TU-134 aircraft, tried to enter the cockpit and threatened to blow up the plane.

A Soviet trade official who was arrested Thursday is thought to be the head of the K.G.B. spy network in West Germany, the authorities said today. The trade official, Gennadi Batashev, 42 years old, was arrested as he met a West German double agent in the crowded square in front of the cathedral in Cologne, 15 miles northwest of Bonn. West German agents seized Mr. Batashev after the double agent handed him ''technological information in the field of electronics'' - secret information on a decoding machine used by West German agents, a Justice Ministry spokesman said.