What was going on when I was born?

A cause of America's growing agricultural trade tension with Europe is well illustrated on Rene and Nicole Barbot's tiny, muddy farm in Normandy. This young French couple, both in their mid-thirties, are trying to build a life for themselves and their three children on just 20 acres of land in the village of Conde-sur-Vire. They share the property, bought eight years ago on a 25-year mortgage, with 19 cows, 150 calves, a shed full of rabbits and a goat. As farmers, the Barbots are educated, modern and efficient. Even so, to make ends meet on so little land, they must be sure of selling their produce at very high prices. And so must the rest of Europe's 3.6 million farmers who have only 20 acres or less on which to live - just a 20th the size of an average American farm, but half the average size of one in Europe. ''We have to work very hard to survive,'' Mr. Barbot explained recently over a midmorning glass of fiery Calvados, which he distills from his own apples.

An article on the Academy Award nominations in Weekend on Friday incorrectly cited the number of previous dual-nomination winners.

International The Middle East peace plan proposed by President Reagan is an unacceptable basis for solving the Palestinian problem, the Palestine Liberation Organization has decided. A P.L.O. spokesman also said the organization would not give Jordan a mandate to negotiate with Washington on its behalf. (Page A1, Column 6.) Features of distant galaxies have been revealed in infrared images received from a new United States telescope that has begun orbiting the Earth. The telescope has also revealed cosmic ''maternity wards'' where clouds of interstellar gas and dust appear to be in various stages of giving birth to stars. (A1:2-4.)

An article Jan. 17 on graduate-program ratings by four national academic organizations omitted a department from the ''top 10'' listing in microbiology, ranked by faculty reputation. The department, at the University of Washington, ranked third, after the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Rockefeller University.

PUBLIC concern over the quality of science and mathematics teaching has risen in recent years to a pitch recalling the frenzy of reform that followed the Soviet Union's launching of Sputnik 1, 25 years ago. Though there is yet no consensus on what exactly should be done, a great many public officials at all levels now agree that some kind of action is required, and soon. Earlier this month, reversing its previous policy of noninvolvement, the Reagan Administration proposed the allocation over the next four years of more than $200 million to address the nationwide shortage of science and mathematics teachers. In Congress, already more than a dozen bills are pending that address the shortage of teachers, the need for new research and the replacement of outmoded equipment.

Banks may have to report more often and in greater detail on their foreign lending, set up larger reserves against ''problem'' foreign loans and alter the way they handle fees under proposals that could become law this year, Congressional analysts say. This assessment was made after completion of the first round of hearings on authorization for the $8.4 billion contribution the United States is to make to the International Monetary Fund. This amount is part of an international effort to increase the lending capacity of the 146-nation institution, which helps developing countries that are short of cash. ''In addition to an increase in I.M.F. resources, some regulatory direction is necessary,'' said Senator John Heinz, chairman of the Senate banking subcommittee on international finance. Extra rules are needed, the Pennsylvania Republican said, to assure that the crisis in bank lending is not repeated.

Company earnings continued to fall on a year-to-year basis in the fourth quarter, although profits have been moving higher from one quarter to the next. A New York Times compilation of the earnings of 276 companies shows some bright spots in the latest three months, including a decline of about $1.5 billion in interest expenses. But over all, the recession continued to exact a heavy toll on earnings.

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi toured the northeastern state of Assam by helicopter and car today and comforted weeping Moslem survivors of mass attacks by Hindu tribespeople. She said student-led opponents of state elections were responsible for the attacks last Friday in which about 600 Moslems were killed. Her political foes, however, denounced her in Parliament in New Delhi - and some called for her resignation - for having insisted on going ahead with the state elections that she scheduled for last Monday, Thursday and Sunday. Polling stations were still open today in some areas where violence had prevented all voting earlier.

In its first days of operation, a new telescope orbiting the earth has returned infrared images showing previousy unobserved features of distant galaxies and revealing cosmic ''maternity wards'' where clouds of interstellar gas and dust appear to be in various stages of giving birth to stars. In just one minute of observation, moreover, the Infrared Astronomical Satellite, which was launched Jan. 25, collected more information on infrared emissions from the Large Magellanic Cloud, the nearest galaxy to our own Milky Way, than had ever been obtained in the years of looking through instruments on the ground, in balloons or high-altitude aircraft. Infrared radiations are invisible to the human eye, and such radiations coming from space are virtually undetectable on the earth because they are mostly absorbed in the atmosphere. The pattern of intense infrared, or heat, emissions from one region of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a nebula of dense dust and gas known as Tarantula, appeared to confirm predictions that it was a region where many new stars were forming, according to astronomers on the project. Further analysis may resolve a scientific debate as to whether the nebula has recently spawned a cluster of massive stars, each 10 to 100 times heavier than the sun, or a single ''monster'' star thousands of times more massive than the sun.

At 4 A.M., the ground floor of the warehouse was transformed into a cave of fantastic shadows: an all-night crowd spurred on by flashing lights, music, liquor and a little cocaine. Standing on the loading dock in front of the after-hours club, the Continental, on West 25th Street, was Arthur Weinstein, the co-owner. His hair was slicked back 50's-style and he wore a white dinner jacket with a jet-black cummerbund. Underneath his evening clothes was a transmitter that allowed the F.B.I. to monitor every word he said. For more than two years, agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ran an undercover operation in the Continental and another downtown after-hours club in Manhattan, an operation that led them through a maze of possible payoffs to police officers, stolen goods, evidence of a counterfeiting ring and finally, murder.

The American Civil Liberties Union is seeking to question 54 present and former New Jersey legislators about their reasons for voting on a law that requires schools to begin each day with a moment of silence. In seeking the answers in an attempt to overturn the law, which it contends is a disguised attempt to promote prayer in the public schools, the rights group has raised the issue of whether lawmakers can be questioned about their motivations, statements or understandings when enacting laws. Lawyers for the Legislature said that they would act Tuesday to block the A.C.L.U.'s move as improper and ask for a hearing on legislative privilege and immunity.

THE feeling has come over almost everyone at one time or another: a sense of deep embarrassment in a doctor's office or in a hospital room. It's a kind of humiliation that seems to grow out of vulnerability, nakedness, of being handled, left exposed to be clinically peered at and examined like a grapefruit in a grocery. Some of the indignities may be unavoidable. Others are not: the ill-fitting gowns that leave you standing in the hallway or X-ray department showing more of yourself than any passerby has a right to see; or the almost indescribably mortifying experience of being carried as an invalid from one treatment area to another by callous and careless hospital workers, moving your body along as if it were being loaded on a ship by longshoremen; or being exhibited in a teaching hospital to groups of strangers who discuss you impersonally in your own presence, using language you don't understand; or revealing intimate details about your life history or finances in a crowded office where everyone can overhear.