What was going on when I was born?

President Reagan sent letters to nine members of Congress today promising a new approach to arms control talks on strategic weapons. A key House panel then voted to release funds for the development of the MX missile, which had been frozen by Congress last year. The Defense Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee voted, 9 to 3, in favor of a resolution that would make $560 million available for flight testing and engineering studies on the MX. Lawmakers said later that the margin had been enhanced by Mr. Reagan's letter, which arrived on Capitol Hill only minutes before the meeting began.

International A new approach to arms control talks with the Soviet Union was pledged by President Reagan in letters to nine members of Congress. Soon afterward, a key House subcommittee voted, 9 to 3, in favor of a resolution that would make $560 million available for flight testing and engineering studies on the MX missile. The development funds were frozen by Congress last year. (Page A1, Column 6.) A compromise bill on El Salvador was approved, 36-1, by the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The measure would provide additional military aid on condition that the Salvadoran Government begin talks with the insurgents. The Reagan Administration said it would accept the bill even though the additional aid approved for the fiscal year 1983, $8.7 million, fell far short of President Reagan's request for $50 million. (A1:5.)

The cloud over Athens: Pollution A2 Israel warns of consequences if Syrians don't pull out A3 Syria's bolstering of forces in Lebanon called a ploy for talks A3 Red Cross criticizes Iran and Iraq over prisoners A4 Around the World A7 U.S. and China sign more accords on technical cooperation A11 French students try to storm the Cannes Film Festival A12 U.S. accuses Soviet of testing two new missiles B9 Government/Politics Chicago Mayor and foes clash again in Council A16 Republican leaders delay Senate budget action A24 E.P.A. investigation cites possibility of perjury on ''hit list'' A24 Study urges replacing city tax incentive plan with expanded one B1 Building chosen by city department is called white elephant B3 Greenhouse-type restaurant planned for Bryant Park B3 Report backs Rickover figures on Navy contractor profits B12 Washington Talk Briefing B8 Q.&A.: Abner J. Mikva B8 Kennedy Center Opera House getting a $2-million facelift B8 Office building poses a question of White House security B8 Health/Science Scientists may have discovered important subatomic particle A13 PARKING REGULATIONS Because of Ascension Day, alternate-side parking is suspended in New York City today. All other rules remain in effect. The Home Section Home Embellishing 80's interiors: the elegant art of decoration C1 Controversy over lavish stately home C1 Helpful Hardware C2 Home Beat C3 Stripping woods can yield surprises C3 Home Improvement C4 A Stickley grandson keeps family heritage alive C6 Hers C2 Calendar of events C5 Student entrepreneurs are majoring in politics C10 Gardening C12 Arts/Entertainment Ballet Theater's ''Sylvia'' Pas de Deux C14 Young chamber players perform music by teen-agers C15 An exhibition of Sir Winston Churchill's paintings C17 A Long voyage to Broadway for star in ''Show Boat'' C17 ''Dance a Little Closer,'' musi- cal, opens C18 Ailey dancers offer Bill T.Jones's ''Fever Swamp'' C19 Mieczyslaw Horszowski plays with Musica Aeterna C19 Malcolm Bosse's ''The Warlord'' is reviewed C21 Pilar Rioja and her soloconcerts C21 John Denver joins the Muppets in ABC music special C23 CBS-TV drops Archie Bunker from next fall's schedule C24 General Around the Nation A14 Photo of woman raises question for editors A15 Satellite communications project exempted from franchise fee B3 Education/Welfare Alvarado to set up nine centers in high schools to teach reading B6 College board lists skills students should have B12 Obituaries Robert S. Curtiss, managed properties for Port Authority B10 Sports Pages Mets beat Astros, 3-0, as Seaver hurls five-hitter B13 Rangers down Yankees, 3-1 B13 Bossy, feeling better, says he could play in Game 2 B13 Dave Anderson on the Islander who blooms in May B13 U.S. and Soviet teams trade bas- kets and late-night snacks B13 76ers beat Bucks, 87-81, and take 2-0 lead in conference final B14 Players: Ashford hopes Mets stop will be permanent B14 Outdoors: Spring turkey shooting attracts sportsmen B15 Features/Notes Man in the News: John A. Wickham Jr., Chief of Staff of Army A17 New York Day by Day B3 Sports People B16 Going Out Guide C18 Editorials/Letters/Op-Ed Editorials A22 Refugees and refoulement Don't give up on withholding Uncle Sugar, redux A.O. Sulzberger: A juror's duty Letters A22 Anthony Lewis: Anything for a story A23 William Safire: Moscow's Middle East bid A23 Robert J. Rubin: A prescription for costs A23 Zalmay Khalilzad: Soviet inter- est in Iran A23

Twenty-three people - including a city firefighter, a restaurant owner, a former university library employee and a former police officer - have been indicted on charges of conspiring to buy, sell and distribute cocaine and heroin, authorities announced yesterday. According to the indictments, the firefighter used the telephone at the firehouse where he was stationed to arrange heroin sales to a police officer posing as a drug dealer, and also met with a coconspirator, then employed by Columbia University, and others at a university library to discuss drug transactions. Sterling Johnson Jr., the special state narcotics prosecutor, said the makeup of those indicted reflected a growing change in the ''profile of drug peddlers'' in the city.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, under Congressional criticism for its enforcement activities, now faces an inquiry into its failure to follow up on charges of questionable payments by Ashland Oil Inc. to Government officials of Oman, according to Congressional sources and others familiar with the case. In 1981, questions were raised within Ashland and at the S.E.C. about 1980 company transactions, worth millions of dollars, with Government officials of Oman as part of a company oil-purchase deal, according to sources familiar with the matter and Ashland officials. The Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Consumer Protection and Finance of the House Energy and Commerce Committee is trying to determine, among other things, why the S.E.C. has not yet obtained any documents from Ashland, even though the commission was first told two years ago that the company may have improperly paid Omani officials as part of the oil deal, the sources add. An S.E.C. spokesman said that the commission, as a matter of policy, declines to comment on continuing investigations. But officials have defended the agency's enforcement record in general, maintaining that pursuit of this type of case is not a major priority compared with investigations dealing with issues such as insider trading.

A LIVELY little controversy has broken out over an American's flamboyant redecoration of Sutton Place, the most important survivor of the great Tudor houses built in the years immediately after Cardinal Wolsey started Hampton Court in 1514. Sutton Place is the precursor of such well loved stately homes as Hardwick Hall, Longleat and Burghley. The house has been redone on such a munificent scale, and with such a theatrical flourish, that it disconcerts those Britons who treasure the shabby gentility of many of their stately homes. But defenders of Stanley J. Seeger Jr., the reclusive multimillionaire responsible for the changes, contend that he should be able to do as he sees fit with his property.

Secretary of State George P. Shultz told President Reagan today that he was confident Syria would eventually consent to withdraw its troops from Lebanon along with Israel's despite Syria's early opposition to the proposal. ''I am confident in the end that will happen,'' Mr. Shultz said, adding that he was also confident that ''Lebanon will again have a chance to be a sovereign country, to decide for itself how it wants to live.'' Mr. Shultz, who returned to Washington today after his 17-day diplomatic mission to the Middle East, met with Mr. Reagan at the White House for 40 minutes. Later he told reporters, ''There is a wave of opinion building up in the Arab world that this is the opportunity to bring about an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon along with all foreign forces.''

''I'm voting against all military appropriations.'' - Representative George W. Crockett Jr., Democrat of Michigan, explaining his vote against military aid to El Salvador. (A1:5.)

UNTIL several years ago, contemporary designers frequently remodeled older apartments and houses by removing moldings, knocking down walls and eliminating rooms, to open up the interiors for space to ''flow.'' Beauty resided in the spaces' essential simplicity, openness and light. But by the late 1970's, with minimalism pushed to the point of austerity and the interiors of whole buildings dissolved in white paint, there was simply nothing left to take out, nowhere less to go. For some designers, the great temptation within this bare, luminous interior was ornament. The California designer John Ruble says: ''It all started as a flirtation. I was first attracted to ornament because I was told not to do it.'' The other great temptation was to create the simple four-sided room. Lisa Lee, an architectural designer working in the Princeton office of Michael Graves, calls it ''that wonderful sense of 'roomness' - not vague spatial areas, but well-defined rooms that give you a sense of place, with decoration confirming that roomlike feeling.'' Today, designers like Mr. Ruble and Miss Lee, confronting an old apartment or house, might decide to keep the rooms, walls and moldings, and even to use the walls as surfaces for more decoration. For them, the wall, and along with it, the floor and ceiling, are no longer abstract planes, but surfaces with potential for embellishment.

A study by the Environmental Protection Agency has found that two-thirds of all tests conducted by a big private research laboratory to establish the safety of pesticides and herbicides now on the market were scientifically invalid. The report, which took five years to prepare, finds that virtually all 212 pesticides and herbicides cleared by Industrial Bio-Test Laboratories of Northbrook, Ill., were subjected to at least one invalid test. Many of the pesticides and herbicides are in wide use. They including Captan, Paraquat, Lasso, Machete, Orthene and Carbofuran.

A search is under way for a site in New York City for a medium- or maximum-security state prison, correction officials said today. At City Hall, Mayor Koch, insisting the city must do its share with the rest of the state, said he strongly supported the idea of building a maximum-security state prison in the city. There are now six medium- and minimum-security state prisons in the city - three in Manhattan and one each in the Bronx and Queens and on Staten Island. They hold 2,180 inmates.

Major industrialized allies have accepted a United States initiative for a new approach to world trade protectionism, European monetary officials said today. The plan would create a broad forum in which these countries could coordinate their trade and economic policies. The aim would be to insure that restrictive trade policies did not spark a third world debt crisis that could destroy hopes of a global economic recovery. What is contemplated, these officials said, is expanding future meetings of an existing international body, the Group of 10. This group brings together the finance ministers of 10 big industrialized countries. Under the new plan, trade ministers would join future meetings.