What was going on when I was born?

The following article is based on reporting by Ralph Blumenthal and Raymond Bonner and was written by Mr. Bonner. The country's largest handler of chemical wastes for private industry and the Defense Department has violated state and Federal laws in disposing of dangerous chemical wastes at half a dozen or more of its sites around the country, according to government documents, court records and former employees. The company, Waste Management Inc., a billion-dollar public corporation with about 20 hazardous waste treatment sites, has within the last two years been cited by state and Federal authorities at at least seven of its toxic waste sites. In addition, three former company chemists and a former office manager say that they alerted their superiors to what they considered illegal dumpings at four separate sites and that they were ignored or in some cases told to cover up what was happening. Two of these former employees have lawsuits pending against the company.

The battle between the GAF Corporation and insurgent shareholders seeking control of the company intensified over the weekend, and the insurgents got some support from an investment analysis group. The insurgents, led by Samuel Heyman, a Connecticut real estate developer, proposed a plan yesterday that they said would pay all of GAF's long-term debt. The plan involves selling the company's chemicals business and WNCN, a radio station in New York, while keeping GAF's roofing materials business. Mr. Heyman said the moves would generate pre-tax cash proceeds of $16 to $18.25 a share.

International An effort to redefine currency values failed again at a meeting of Common Market finance ministers in Brussels. The ministers of the eight countries that maintain fixed exchange rates between their currencies also did not take other steps to turn back a wave of speculation that has engulfed their financial markets. Their inaction means that the central banks of the eight countries will not buy or sell currencies on the financial markets today to defend the fixed exchange rates they are required to maintain under the terms of the European Monetary System. Negotiations, however, will continue. (Page A1, Column 6.) A member of France's Cabinet quit, the first of President Francois Mitterrand's Socialist Government to depart. The Minister of Foreign Trade, Michel Jobert, resigned, saying that he had not been given enough authority to carry out his assignment to close France's foreign trade deficit. His resignation was announced during hectic Government consultations on economic policy and the flagging negotiations in Brussels on the Common Market's monetary system. (A1:5.)

Eight Common Market finance ministers failed today to agree on new values for their currencies or on other steps to fend off the wave of speculation that has engulfed their financial markets in recent days. In light of the failure, the central banks of the eight countries making up the European Monetary System said they would not buy or sell currencies on the financial markets Monday to defend the fixed exchange rates they are required to maintain under terms of the system's rules. Such a hands-off approach by the central banks would leave the markets free to carry out a de facto realignment of the eight currencies. Without support measures, the French franc could be expected to decline further while the West German mark would strengthen.

France's Minister of Foreign Trade, Michel Jobert, resigned today, saying he had not been given enough authority to carry out his assignment to close France's foreign trade deficit. Mr. Jobert is the first key minister to quit President Francois Mitterrand's Government. The development came as Mr. Mitterrand and top Government officials held a hectic round of meetings on economic policy and the flagging negotiations in Brussels on the Common Market's monetary system. On Monday, European heads of government are to gather in Brussels for a regular two-day summit meeting that is expected to be dominated by discussions of the currency crisis.

Social scientists believe that the level of public tolerance of the use of illegal drugs is continuing to rise in all levels of American society. They say, further, that the growing availability and acceptability of these drugs is effecting profound social changes that have neither been fully acknowledged nor fully understood. The signs of the raised level of acceptance are widespread. At a rehearsal break in a recent Manhattan practice session of an Ivy League alumni choral group that counts stockbrokers, lawyers and corporate executives among its membership, one successful businessman held out a bit of hashish to a fellow singer, aged 49. ''Have some?'' he asked.

An article Saturday incorrectly identified Walid Khalidi, a member of an Arab League delegation that visited Britain. Mr. Khalidi is not a member of the Palestine National Council or the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Internatonal Common Market finance ministers failed to agree on new values for their currencies. France seemed to be the holdout. Thus, the eight members of the European Monetary System will not support their currencies when markets open today. The talks, which could have broad political and economic consequences, continue today. (Page A1.) The immediate effect in the United States should not be extensive, according to bankers in New York. (D5.)

The Storage Technology Corporation usually has proved itself lithe and resourceful, dancing in the shadow of the computer industry giant, the International Business Machines Corporation. But the company took a nasty fall last year when a bad batch of disk drives caused computer system failures at several big corporations. ''We ended up on the bleeding edge of technology, instead of the leading edge,'' one computer systems executive at a major bank said sarcastically. The $17 million bill to remedy the situation contributed to Storage Technology's first drop in annual profits since 1974. They had grown at an average yearly rate above 40 percent for the last 10 years. Perhaps worse, though, was the damage to the company's reputation for sound engineering at an especially portentous time.

A proposal to have a Grand Prix auto race in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in September is causing a stir in Queens. So far it has produced a public-relations campaign by the promoter, a spate of black buttons saying ''Stop the Grand Prix'' and a lot of animated discussion at community board meetings about whether it would be good or bad for the park and for Queens. The proposal is for a race to be held every year for the next 10 years. The Mayor's Concessions Review Committee is scheduled to hold an open hearing on the subject this morning in the Board of Estimate chamber at City Hall.

''You know when you're kids, on a merry-go-round, you go to Central Park.

Negotiations continued early this morning in an effort to settle the two-week-old strike against Metro-North Commuter Railroad. The talks began last night with both sides reaffirming the positions that had led to the walkout. The negotiating session - the third Sunday night meeting in the last three weeks and the second since the strike began - was held ''in an effort to get the trains rolling Monday morning,'' said Richard Ravitch, the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.