What was going on when I was born?

At fateful trial, ex-guerrilla against Zimbabwe A2 Soviet enhances Gromyko's role in Government A3 Two-week ban on Cuban airliners A4 Nicaraguan sees a Salvador link in rebel attacks A5 Adelman says he has no plan for a "purge" A8 Weinberger sees possible treaty amendment A9 Democrats accuse Reagan of trying to frighten nation A9 Bulgarian held in plot against Pope loses another appeal A11 Reagan peace plan said to be "very much alive" in Jordan A12 Israelis and Marines agree on ways to avoid confrontations A12 Government/Politics U.S. steel agrees to no contest plea in illegal dumping A16 Two charged with fraud in sales to Army commissaries A16 Aid by Federal troops in nuclear plant emergencies is sought B3 Legislators agree on sales tax in- crease for Nassau County B5 Washington Talk Briefing A18 Secretary of State Shultz: Some questions and answers A18 In honoring the Rebbe, the ca- terer did well too A18 General Around the Nation A14 Court clears seven of 11 blacks in Alabama clash with police A14 Tristate agency criticizes plans to cut sewage treatment B3 Education/Welfare Key Albany legislators agree on $12.5 million to aid homeless B4 Religion Church panel inconclusive on homosexual denomination A14 Weekend Weekender Guide C1 City is a festival of sacred music C1 Calendar of Easter music C29 Theater: Broadway C2 History of musicals at Broad- way museum C3 Screen: At the Movies C8 Coppola's "Outsiders," with Matt Dillon C3 "Dirty Dishes," a French comedy by Joyce Bunuel C12 Dance in bloom all over town C1 Music: New Orleans's Preserva- tion Hall jazz at Avery Fisher C6 Art: A more satisfying Biennial at the Whitney C1 Auctions C27 Art People C27 Alfred Kubin show a lesson in fantasy C25 Books: Publishing houses setting up downtown C24 "Chronicle of a Death Fore- told" is reviewed C32 Restaurants C22 TV Weekend C30 Style Notes on Fashion B6 New elegance in Paris ready-to- wear B6 Obituaries Blanton Collier, coached Browns to football title in 1964 B5 Sports Pages Louisville and Kentucky reach Mideast final A21 North Carolina State routs Utah, 75-56, in N.C.A.A. West A21 Mrs. King routs Andrea Jaeger; Tracy Austin upset at Garden A21 Yankees release Mayberry and put Griffey at first base A21 Scranton rolls out the red carpet for Holmes's challenger A21 Houston dominates opponents with strong inside game A22 Georgia, lacking a star, stresses defense A22 Capitals rally to beat Devils, 5-3 A24 Racing simulcasts could be boon for bettors A24 George Vecsey on Evonne Goola- gong Cawley A25 Features/Notes Sports People A26 New York Day by Day B4 News Analysis Harold M. Schmeck Jr. on Dr. Clark's sacrifice A20 David Margolick on the case of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon B3 H. Erich Heinemann assesses Federal Reserve policy D1 Editorials/Letters/Op-Ed Editorials A30 The air fare carnival Gray smoke over the Vatican The role of Barney Clark Peter Passell: Utility costs Letters A30 Flora Lewis: Bumbling missile diplomacy A31 Tom Wicker: Asking less, and getting it A31 Jude Wanniski: Supply-side wins A31 David A. Ablin and Marlowe Hood: End Cambodia embargo A31

Legislation to deny criminals ''the fruits of their ill-gotten gains'' will be introduced in Albany next week, Attorney General Robert Abrams said yesterday. An expanded forfeiture law, Mr. Abrams said, would let New York State and local authorities sue to seize a criminal's assets - not just the paraphernalia or profits of the crime but ''fur coats, cooperative apartments'' and other possessions. ''When they arrested Nicky Barnes, they put him in jail,'' Mr. Abrams said, ''but they didn't stop his organization.'' Mr. Barnes was a major drug dealer in New York.

Companies People Express air service from Newark to London won tentative approval from the Civil Aeronautics Board. The carrier said it would try to offer a $149 one-way economy-class fare starting in June. But British approval of the low fares is uncertain. (D1.) Nine A.T.& T. operating subsidiaries retained their top-grade or near-highest credit ratings from Standard & Poor's, while another's low rating was lifted. The agency downgraded ratings for 11 more units, but not as much as Moody's had two weeks earlier. (D1.) Demand was strong for debt offerings by South Central Bell. (D5.)

Mayor Koch went around the Lower East Side Wednesday evening trying to talk homeless and mentally disturbed people into giving up a life on the streets for a hot meal and a warm bed in one of the city's shelters. Bundled up against the near-freezing temperature with an ''I Love New York'' muffler wrapped around his neck, the Mayor, riding in a van with a team of social workers and a psychiatrist to get a personal view of the problem, saw a disheveled man standing on Seventh Street near Avenue A. But the man, a timid street person whom social workers call John Doe Plastic Cap because he wears a plastic bag as a hat, took one look at Mr. Koch and started to walk away on the sidewalk. ''Hey, sir, don't be afraid,'' the Mayor said as he followed behind on the street. ''I won't hurt you. I'm the Mayor and I want to help you.''

People Express Airlines won tentative approval yesterday from the Civil Aeronautics Board to fly between Newark and London, and the C.A.B. endorsed the carrier's plan to charge $149 one-way. That's less than half the lowest fare now available on trans-Atlantic flights. Whether People Express will actually be able to introduce the fare depends on the British Government, which must give its approval. People Express, which has grown rapidly by offering low fares on its routes in the Northeast and Florida, plans to charge the $149 for its unrestricted economy class and $439 one way for a more luxurious service on the 747-200 aircraft that the company plans to lease.

Governor Cuomo's drive to pare the state work force has plunged thousands of state workers into confusion as they wait to hear if they face joblessness, a demotion or a big cut in salary. Layoff notices have gone to thousands of workers, but as a result of budget negotiations, most of them will not be laid off. But thousands of other workers have been warned that they face transfers, demotions or other shifts as part of the ripple effect of the threatened layoffs. Everyone is waiting for the outcome of talks between the Governor and the legislative leaders to find out what will really happen. State workers said the uncertainty had severely damaged morale and, in some cases, productivity as workers flooded personnel offices with questions or took vacations to seek other jobs.

Yoshiyuki Sugiura, superintendent of the Nippondenso Company's plant that produces automotive alternators here, is one of the middle-level executives who make Japan's unique kanban, or just-in-time, manufacturing system work. Twenty-one times a day, around the clock, trucks are dispatched from the shipping area with loads of alternators bound for the Toyota Motor Corporation's Kamigo and Shimoyama engine plants in nearby Toyota City. Each truck carries just enough parts to keep the production lines running for an hour at Toyota, which, not incidentally, is the supplier's biggest stockholder. As the 4 P.M. truck prepares to leave, Mr. Sugiura remarks, ''The truck will go to Toyota, and in about half an hour it will be back with instructions on how many pieces to deliver for tomorrow's production.'' By keeping stocks of parts low - the Anjo plant seldom has more than three-fifths of a day's production on hand - auto makers and suppliers here can adjust to changes in demand quickly and without waste.

Reagan Administration officials said today that Israel had refused to accept ideas proposed by the United States last week to break the deadlock in the negotiations for an Israeli troop withdrawal from Lebanon. The continuing impasse in the talks, held since the end of December by Israeli and Lebanese negotiators with United States participation, has caused what one official described as irritation at the highest levels of the Administration. State Department officials said there were expectations when Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir returned to Israel from Washington last week of early movement toward an accord. Instead, the officials said, Philip C. Habib, the special American envoy, has found in meetings with Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Mr. Shamir that the optimism generated by Mr. Shamir's 12 hours of talks with Secretary of State George P. Shultz and other officials, including a half hour with President Reagan, was at best premature.

SEVERAL times this week I have caught myself using a form of words not often heard in New York City - ''I did so enjoy the Whitney Biennial.'' In saying this, I did not forget that there never was yet a mixed exhibition that pleased everyone. All the way back to the Armory Show in New York in 1913 and the Salon des Refuses in Paris in 1863, there have been people who beefed. If it wasn't the artists who were in the show that they complained about, it was the artists who were left out. As in other departments of life, the very act of choosing is offensive. It is, as a veteran statesman once said, ''Every time I appoint a new minister, I make myself 19 enemies and have to work side by side with a monster of ingratitude.'' This was true of the major exhibitions of last year in Europe - Kassel, Venice, Berlin and Amsterdam - and it is doubtless true of the Corcoran Biennial in Washington (to be reviewed on Sunday in the Arts and Leisure section). It has often been true of the Whitney Biennial, which this year enters upon its second half-century of existence. No matter how much care, thought and footwork went into the Whitney Biennial, it often ended up with a random, formless, idea-less look, thereby incurring widespread castigation.

Community leaders, the police and church officials yesterday announced the formation of a task force to help refugees and other immigrants, particularly Asians, who have resettled in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. Edward Rogowsky, vice president of the Flatbush Development Corporation, a nonprofit agency seeking to revitalize the neighborhood, said the task force would see that immigrants were told where it was safe to live and what social services were available. Last week, seven Cambodian families that had endured war and starvation and had hoped to find a better life in New York fled the Parade Grounds section of Flatbush - just south of Prospect Park - after being victimized by crime. They have resettled in Harrisburg, Pa.

Friday 8 BUNUELS ON BROADWAY A four-week festival of films by Luis Bunuel opens today at Cinema Studio I, Broadway and 66th Street, with two classics: the 1972 ''Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie,'' a surrealistic comedy of manners that won an Academy Award, and ''Viridiana'' (1961), the irreverent tale of a novice about to take holy orders. Eight films will be shown, a double-bill each week. Admission is $5 ($2.50 for over-65's during the day). Information: 877-4040. CRAFTS FAIR AT COLUMBIA Columbia University's Ferris Booth Hall, at Broadway and 115th Street, will turn into a marketplace today, tomorrow and Sunday from 11 A.M. to 7 P.M. as the American Arts and Crafts Alliance holds a spring fair. Ninety exhibits of all kinds of things, made of such materials as wood, fiber, metal, paper and blown glass, will be on hand. Woven clothes are a feature this year. Admission: $2 contribution (children free). Information: 595-8357.

Dr. Barney B. Clark's death late Wednesday night was a result of massive circulatory collapse, shock and failure of all the organs in his body except the artificial heart, which continued to pump even after he was dead, his doctors at the University of Utah said today. They also said the process had probably been brought on as a complication of the antibiotic therapy Dr. Clark received for the aspiration pneumonia he developed March 3. The clinical findings were verified by an autopsy that was done immediately after Dr. Clark's death and that showed ''no surprises,'' Dr. William C. DeVries, head of the team that cared for him, said at a news conference. He added, ''There was nothing significant that we missed,'' meaning that the doctors had diagnosed and treated Dr. Clark properly. Dr. Chase N. Peterson, the university's vice president for health sciences, said of the 62-year-old patient, the first to live with an artificial heart for an extended period of time, that ''everything failed'' except the heart.