What was going on when I was born?

Saudi Arabia said today that it and five other members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries had agreed to a reduction in the price of Saudi Light crude, which determines the price that other OPEC members charge for their oil. The Saudi Arabian oil minister, Sheik Ahmed Zaki Yamani, warned the other seven members of OPEC that if they did not accept the planned price cut -believed to be $4 a barrel - the six stood ready to slash prices further. If the OPEC nations, which produce about a third of the world's oil, fail to coordinate their prices, recent reductions by Britain, Norway and Nigeria could set off a price war, aggravating economic uncertainty and jeopardizing bank loans to the poorer oil exporters. There were indications that those risks could lead non-OPEC members to join any move by the 13 nations to stabilize world oil prices. Although Sheik Yamani refused to put a figure on the price cut, it was reported in industry circles here that the major Persian Gulf producers would agree on a new basic price of about $30 a barrel for Saudi Light, down from the current $34.

After several years on his own, Louis Florio, a 26-year-old supermarket produce man, is back home, living in his childhood bedroom in Selden, L.I. - with his wife, Maria, and their infant daughter, Tresa. Mr. Florio's 22-year-old sister, Phyllis, has returned to her old room, which she shares with her husband, Bill, a cook, and their daughter, Carla. The children and their children have come home to Frank Florio and his wife, Terry. The elder Florios still have the master bedroom and Louis's other daughter, Maria, 7, has the spare room.

The inspector general and chief administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency submitted their resignations today. The actions were taken at the request of the White House, according to a senior Reagan Administration official. The inspector general, Matthew N. Novick, wrote a report critical of the agency's program for cleaning up toxic waste dumps that buttressed the position of its critics in Congress. But before that, the same critics accused him of not properly investigating charges of misconduct by a fellow agency official. The other aide who resigned was John P. Horton, the agency's assistant administrator for administration, who was responsible for making the agency function. Many critics in Congress say the agency is ill managed. Mr. Horton is under investigation because of reports that he conducted his private business from his agency office. He has denied the charges.

The banking industry's drive to repeal a key element in last year's tax bill that subjects interest and dividends to 10 percent withholding has produced one of the hottest and, some say, nastiest debates in recent years. The pro-repeal forces have charged, among other things, that savings accounts will be ''looted'' and that investors' earnings will ''disappear'' should the deductions, which are to begin July 1, take effect. President Reagan said today that he thought the effort for repeal was ''entirely wrong.'' He added, ''I think that a great lobbying effort has resulted in much distortion.'' Senator Bob Dole, the Kansas Republican who is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and a main defender of withholding as a way to catch tax cheats, complains that the bankers' ''unscrupulous'' war of words represents a ''historic low'' in lobbying tactics. Both he and Treasury Secretary Donald T. Regan have implied that should the banks succeed, the Government would retaliate by seeking to increase their taxes.

President Reagan, advocating an Arab-Israeli resolution of the Palestinian issue as ''the greatest security for Israel,'' said today that this would require ''providing something in the nature of a homeland'' for the Palestinians. The President, who said he was not suggesting ''creating a nation,'' strongly emphasized his fears that delay in the withdrawal of outside military forces from Lebanon was jeopardizing the wider process of Middle East peace diplomacy. ''Time is not on our side in this,'' he told a breakfast gathering of about 50 reporters, editors and columnists. ''The longer we delay in this, the more we endanger the possibility of moving on into the general peace discussions.'' Envoy Notes 'Sense of Urgency' Moshe Arens, who made a farewell call on Mr. Reagan as Israeli Ambassador to the United States before taking over as Israel's Defense Minister on Friday, said afterward that the President had also conveyed to him ''a sense of urgency'' on the withrawal issue after repeating an offer to guarantee Israel's northern border with Lebanon.

The Big Three automobile manufacturers reported today that sales in the Feb. 11-20 period fell 14.2 percent from the comparable period of 1982. The General Motors Corporation, the Ford Motor Company and the Chrysler Corporation had a combined daily selling rate of 15,491, off from 18,056 a day last year. Last year's period was a time of brisk selling, spurred by a round of industrywide rebates. Industry analysts said that a snowstorm in the Northeast played a minor part in the sales decline, which produced the lowest sales rate for the period since 1961. And Harvey Heinbach of Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith said, ''The impact of the interest-rate incentive programs is starting to wear off.''

Buoyed by favorable economic news, the Dow Jones industrial average yesterday climbed 16.54 points, to 1,096.94, the second-highest close in its history. The rally reversed Tuesday's performance, when the blue-chip barometer tumbled 12.42 points in reaction to oil price cuts announced by Nigeria on Saturday and by Britain and Norway the day before. The market was closed Monday in observance of Presidents' Day. John C. Pistell, chief technical analyst at Stires & Company, said that the surge yesterday resulted mainly from a Government report that durable goods orders in January climbed 4.5 percent, the largest monthly increase since September 1980. He noted that this ''was another important indication that the recession is ending.''

An obituary of Francis X. McGowan on Feb. 16 incorrectly identified his wife.

Representative Harold Washington, the victor in this city's three-way Democratic mayoral primary Tuesday, received the concession of Mayor Jane M. Byrne today and began to turn his political movement into what he expects to be a new city administration. In his victory speech to a jubiliant crowd just before dawn this morning, the 60-year-old Congressman set an ambitious agenda for his City Hall administration, the first in Chicago's 150-year history that would be headed by a black. Mr. Washington must face the Republican nominee, Bernard Epton, like the Representative a former state legislator, in the April 12 general election. But the Democratic nomination has guaranteed election here since 1931. Fair Government Pledged ''By this vote,'' said a hoarse Mr. Washington, who rode a heavy surge of black votes to victory in a record voter turnout of more than 1.25 million, ''the Democratic Party has been returned to the people. We shall have an open and fair government in which all people of all colors, races and creeds are treated fairly, equally and equitably.''

During much of the Lopez Portillo administration that ended 10 weeks ago, Petroleos Mexicanos seemed like a state within a state and the Oil Workers Union acted like a company within a company. Both were powerful, wealthy, fast-growing and corrupt. And both, it appeared, were above auditing and beyond control by the Government. Now, however, as part of a ''moral renovation'' campaign, Mexico's new President, Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado, has taken up the challenge of taming the oil industry - of cleaning up corruption, featherbedding and inefficiencies in Pemex, as the state-owned energy group is called.

Five years after Congress grudgingly provided loan guarantees for New York City, the animosity toward the city that had been so prevalent seems to have given way to a gentler attitude. Dinner party jokes at the expense of the city are less frequent, and while some members of the Reagan Administration seem to regard New York City as a foreign entity, they tend not to talk about it. Yet despite the apparently higher public esteem, brought about largely by the city's repayment of the loans, mixed emotions linger. Measuring the city's stature here on a scale of 1 to 10, Senator Jake Garn, Republican of Utah, said: ''It was at 1; now it's at 5.'' Mr. Garn, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, which deals with legislation vital to the city, voted against the New York City Loan Guarantee Act of 1978.

Ted Turner, the cable television entrepreneur, has been talking to top officials at all three of the major television networks about the possibility of a merger with his company, Turner Broadcasting System Inc. In recent weeks he has met with Thomas H. Wyman, president of CBS Inc., and on Tuesday Mr. Turner met with Robert Mulholland, president of the National Broadcasting Company, and Frederick S. Pierce, president of the American Broadcasting Companies, at each network's offices in New York. Turner Broadcasting System owns a ''superstation,'' WTBS in Atlanta, which reaches 22.5 million cable viewers nationwide by satellite. The company also operates the Cable News Network, a 24-hour news service that is received by 14 million cable subscribers, and the Cable News Network Headline Service, which is seen both by 1.8 million cable subscribers and on 133 conventional television stations. In addition, Mr. Turner's company owns the Atlanta Braves baseball team and the Atlanta Hawks basketball team.