What was going on when I was born?

It was only a few months after the Central National Bank bought its 23-story Cleveland headquarters in November 1977 that dangerous cracks appeared all over the eight-year-old building's brick facade. Last week the bank won a $26 million jury award against the Dow Chemical Company, the maker of Sarabond, the mortar additive that caused the damage. The 18-week Central National trial in Cleveland's Common Pleas Court was the first Sarabond case to get to a jury, but lawyers familiar with the problem say that Dow is facing dozens - and possibly hundreds - of similar claims. The Brick Institute of America estimates that Sarabond has been used in about 2,000 buildings.

Alarmed by a sixfold increase in legal judgments against New York City, to $120 million a year, city officials said they would seek legislation in Albany to curb the cost. The city wants a limit on personal injury awards and limited liability when it is a co-defendant. It also seeks to bring all city employees under workers' compensation and to have cases against the city tried by judges without juries. This would save the city $36 million, according to the Office of Management and Budget. It says in a memorandum that liability costs, which had averaged $20 million a year, rose to $120 million in 1981.

Steelmakers may be emerging from one of their darkest periods since the Depression, but they are having trouble believing that the trials of their battered industry are at an end. The elements of a recovery are beginning to fall into place. Orders for flat-rolled steel have rebounded sharply, discounting is moderating and a recent price increase seems to be sticking. In addition, imports have dropped significantly - down 44 percent in January from the level of a year before. And European steelmakers have agreed to cut their shipments to this country.

Bolstered by more favorable economic news, stocks made another broad advance yesterday in heavy trading. All three of the major market indicators finished at new closing highs. The closely watched Dow Jones industrial average, which is composed of 30 major corporations, closed ahead 4.35 points, at 1,135.06. The overall market did even better. Issues that rose in price on the New York Stock Exchange outnumbered issues that fell by more than a 2-to-1 ratio.

A news summary item in the Business Digest on Tuesday incorrectly identified a stock purchased by the Norfolk Southern Corporation. It was Santa Fe Industries.

An article by The Associated Press in Metropolitan Report on Feb. 24 incorrectly described former Representative John M. Murphy's conviction in the Abscam case. He was convicted of having received an unlawful gratuity.

The Economy Leading economic indicators rose 3.6 percent in January, the largest monthly gain in more than three decades, the Commerce Department reported. Economists saw the increase, the second-largest ever, as strong evidence that recovery is under way. The index has now risen in nine of the past twelve months. (Page A1.) The Treasury agreed to ease some provisions of the law requiring withholding on interest and dividend payments by the banking and securities industries. Both had brought intense pressure on officials. Under the change, taxes on money market accounts will be withheld once a year instead of monthly or quarterly. (D1.)

Some Salvadoran officials said today that they considered their country's military situation ''serious'' but not so bleak as described by Reagan Adminstration officials at a Congressional hearing in Washington Tuesday. They said El Salvador needed more military assistance from the United States in the form of supplies and training. There also is a need for a change in the strategy for fighting the guerrillas, they said. But the officials dismissed the statement made at the Washington hearing that Salvadoran soldiers would run out of military supplies in 30 days unless the United States provided $60 million immediately in additional military aid. They also dismissed what they said was the impression that Washington seemed to have that El Salvador was about to be taken over by the guerrilla forces.

International Earlier elections in El Salvador are sought by the Reagan Administration. State Department officials said the Salvadoran Government had been asked to announce on Sunday, when Pope John Paul II is visiting the country, that it would advance the date of Presidential elections from next year to later this year. (Page A1, Col. 6.) Salvadoran officials said they considered their nation's military situation ''serious'' but not so bleak as described Tuesday by Reagan Administration officials. They said El Salvador needed more American military training and supplies, but they dismissed the assertion that Salvadoran soldiers would run out of military supplies in 30 days unless Washington provided an immediate $60 million in additional military aid. (A1:4-5.)

The Metro-North railroad yesterday ordered reductions in crew size that could mean the elimination of 70 to 75 jobs of conductors and trainmen on the Hudson, Harlem and New Haven lines. The United Transportation Union, representing the 541 conductors and trainmen on the railroad, had announced that its members would strike on Monday if new crew notices reducing the number of jobs were posted. But Arvid Anderson, who has been acting as a mediator in the dispute, said yesterday he had arranged another bargaining session for 1 P.M. today in a new effort to resolve the problem of crew size and avert a walkout.

The caption on a pair of United Press International photographs in the Late Edition yesterday reversed the identities of two Israeli generals. Brig. Gen. Amos Yaron was shown above Maj. Gen. Yehoshua Saguy.

The Reagan Administration has urged the Salvadoran Government to advance the date of presidential elections from next March to later this year, State Department officials said today. They said the Administration had sought an announcement for next Sunday to coincide with the visit of Pope John Paul II to El Salvador. The Pope arrived in Costa Rica today at the start of his weeklong tour of Central America. The officials added, however, that because the election plan had been made public by a special American envoy, Richard Stone, it was uncertain the Government of Provisional President Alvaro Magana would go ahead with it.