What was going on when I was born?

Soon after he purchased his first personal computer in 1975, Gerald D. Smith, then a designer of computer-based accounting systems for business, figured it would take about six months to create a program capable of processing individual tax returns in about 10 minutes. He was wrong. The gestation stretched out to five years, but the original blueprint apparently was sound. Now in its third year on the market, Mr. Smith's Micro-Tax is a best seller among dozens of taxprocessing disks available for personal computers.

On a track he helped design, Eamonn Coghlan ran the first sub-3:50 indoor mile - 3 minutes 49.78 seconds - today during the Vitalis/U.S. Olympic Invitational meet. Aided by a brisk early pace, a competitive field and his determined desire for a permanent place in the record books, the 30-year-old Coghlan led the last half-mile of the 10-lap race as if on a mission. Perhaps he was. Earlier in the month, Coghlan's father, Bill Coghlan, died of a heart attack during a visit here from Ireland to watch his son run in two meets - the Wanamaker Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden and this meet, which was postponed from Feb.12 because of heavy snow. Today, while recounting the race, Coghlan said he thought of his longtime Irish coach, Gerry Farnam, who died last year, and his father, and said to himself on the last lap, ''This is for you guys.''

GEORGE BAMBERGER, who had to be coaxed into returning as manager of the Mets this year, is kind of giddy these days. He watches the assembly line of young pitchers firing baseballs in the Mets' training camp, and says: ''When I first went to the Baltimore Orioles in 1968, they had pitchers like Jim Palmer, Dave McNally, Mike Cuellar and Pat Dobson. But, except for Palmer, for arm strength and natural talent, none of the Orioles could throw with these kids.'' For people who suspect that Bamberger's rhetoric is running away with his judgment, the manager of the Mets adds: ''This is as good a group of kids as I've seen in 37 years in baseball. These guys have the potential to become the Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman and Nolan Ryan of the 1980's.''

Orders for machine tools, a major economic barometer, dropped 55.4 percent in January from the levels of a year earlier and were 24.3 percent below the previous month, the National Machine Tool Builders' Association reported yesterday. Total net orders for the vital machines, which are closely watched by economists as an indicator of American industry's future production plans, fell to $91.5 million last month from $120.95 million in December and $202.5 million in January of 1982.

The nation's governors want higher taxes and less spending in the military sector to cut the Federal budget over the next five years, rather than any further reduction in social expenditures. (Page A1.) Treasury Secretary Regan doesn't think the $4.6 billion jobs bill is too large for the Administration to accept. While $300 million more than the President had proposed, it does not stretch the Administration's credibility, Mr. Regan said. (A1.)

Sharply lower oil exports and falling prices are prompting producing countries in the Middle East to begin to pull money out of Western securities markets and banks, according to Government, banking and other sources. Tracing such international capital movements, many of which are not officially recorded, is inherently imprecise. But conversations with analysts familiar with the situation indicate that even the richest members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries have begun to take steps to deal with what has become a worsening financial pinch. OPEC oil production, the bulk of which is exported, tumbled 18.7 percent last year, after a 15.7 percent decline in 1981, and prices declined.

Dairy cows have been randomly shot and killed. A few cattle have been butchered in the field. Trees have been felled. Tractor tires have been slashed. Barns and wheat fields have been burned. Harvesting combines worth $100,000 have been disabled. Irrigation pumps have been shattered with sledgehammers. The vandalism, which goes far beyond mischief, has been striking farms throughout New Jersey, the country's most urbanized state. The state's Agriculture Secretary, Arthur R. Brown, said that unless the havoc can be curbed, it could undermine New Jersey's efforts to retain agriculture in the state, particularly near housing developments. New Jersey officials are uncertain why the destruction is occurring, but farmers say that most of it is done at night and that many of the vandals are teen-agers and young adults.

Leaders of the National Governors Association called on the Federal Government today to reduce the growth of military spending, maintain the current level of social welfare spending and consider raising taxes to slash the Federal budget deficit over the next five years. It was their most comprehensive statement to date on Reagan Administration fiscal policies. The appeal to Congress and the Administration, approved by the governors' executive committee, represented their first formal statement on military spending as well as their most forceful warning about the Federal deficit, which most governors see as a threat to the health of state economies. The chairman of the association, Gov. Scott M. Matheson of Utah, a Democrat, and the vice chairman, Gov. James R. Thompson of Illinois, a Republican, jointly sponsored a proposal calling on Congress and the White House to reduce the annual Federal deficit to $90 billion in the fiscal year 1988. Projections by the Congressional Budget Office show that under present law the deficit will reach a postwar high of $194 billion in the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, and will rise to $267 billion in 1988.

The Reagan Administration has decided to give the head of the Environmental Protection Agency and her new management team time to improve the agency's performance before taking further action, a White House official said today. Craig Fuller, secretary to President Reagan's Cabinet, reported the decision in response to questions about the possibility of naming an outside consultant to conduct a management study of the E.P.A. The agency has been the subject in recent weeks of allegations of mismanagement and suspicions of political manipulation and is under investigation by the Justice Department and several Congressional committees. On Friday, a senior White House official said the President was considering the appointment of David F. Linowes, a professor at the University of Illinois, to head a special committee that might recommend changes in the agency's organization and management approach. Today, Mr. Fuller said the Administration had decided not to ask Mr. Linowes to make the study.

Record Treasury borrowing to finance the Federal deficit dominated the nation's credit markets in the fourth quarter of 1982, according to estimates published by the Federal Reserve Board last week. At the same time, private credit demands dropped because of a sharp contraction in corporate borrowing. This played an important role in helping to reduce interest rates. The report highlighted the problem faced by the Administration and the Federal Reserve. Economists, in Government and out, agree that for the economy to pull out of its four-year slump, interest rates must continue to decline. But there is a sharp debate whether this will be possible if expanding business opportunities lead private borrowers to compete with the Government for funds.

Negotiations are scheduled to resume this morning in New York and New Jersey to avert threatened walkouts at midnight by trainmen and conductors on lines run by Metro-North and NJ Transit. Transit officials spent the weekend preparing plans to get commuters to work by private and public buses and other rail lines in the event of a strike. Metro-North carries 80,000 riders a day and NJ Transit carries 75,000 a day, Members of the United Transportation Union in both states, who have been working without a contract since Jan. 1, have threatened to halt service at 12:01 A.M. tomorrow. The rail lines were taken over from Conrail, a Federal agency, by the state authorities on Jan. 1. With the exception of the United Transportation Union, all of the major unions involved have reached agreements with the new management. The disputes between the United Transportation Union and the state authorities center on differences over working hours and the size of crews.

Five California banks agreed to assume the assets and take over the management of the seven branches of the failed American City Bank, the California State Banking Department announced tonight. American City was closed by the department's acting superintendent, Harold D. Doyle, at 6 P.M. last Friday, following news reports of the bank's mounting loan losses. It was the second-largest bank failure in California's history. Most of the bank's seven branches were expected to reopen sometime Monday. A hearing before the Los Angeles Superior County Court, whose approval was required to complete the bank's asset transfer, was set for late tonight.