What was going on when I was born?

In New York Day by Day on Saturday, the age of Judge Edward Weinfeld of United States District Court was given incorrectly. He is 82.

Noise restrictions scheduled to go into effect at New York metropolitan airports in July have set off a chain reaction in the charter industry that may result in higher air fares and may put financial pressure on charter tour operators and charter airlines. The restrictions, adopted by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and scheduled to go into effect July 20, prohibit nearly all flights of the noisier Boeing 707 and DC-8 jets into metropolitan airports, such as John F. Kennedy International Airport, La Guardia Airport and Newark International Airport. For years the mainstays of many charter tours have been the Boeing 707 and the DC-8. The aging planes were cheaper - the 707's cost only about $1 million each - and provided easier entry for charters into newly deregulated markets. Though outdated for most airlines, the aircraft are an ideal size for charters, carrying a little more than 180 passengers. The problem for the charter airlines and operators is that they have too many of the planes, whose engines make too much noise under the new rules.

Life was a good deal less confusing here when the firefighters basically fought fires. But lately the city's 216 firefighters - half of them paid city employees, half volunteers - have been busier battling one another in the bitter ouster of the volunteers. The Milford Board of Fire Commissioners in February abolished the six volunteer companies and stripped volunteers of any duties. For anyone still wanting to become a volunteer, the commission has ordered training - even for the current volunteers, who have been trained in past.

The Going Out Guide on Wednesday gave an incorrect minimum for the show at Michael's Pub. It is $10.

Leaders of 16 major universities and corporations called on President Reagan yesterday to put the full weight of the White House behind a new national program to restore the nation's ability to compete with other industrial nations. Such a restoration must become the country's ''central objective'' for the rest of the decade, the members of the task force of the Business-Higher Education Forum said in a letter to Mr. Reagan. Their letter accompanied a report urging changes in trade, taxation, investment and educational policies to solve ''deep-rooted and structural'' economic problems. ''Other nations,'' the report said, ''have recognized the new economic imperative and have integrated their domestic and foreign policies into aggressive, coordinated national strategies to meet the challenge of international competition. The United States has not.''

If the Interstate Commerce Commission approves the reorganization plans of the bankrupt Milwaukee Road, the Grand Trunk Corporation, a subsidiary of the Canadian National Railway Company, will accomplish a westward push from here into the heartland of the United States that it first began contemplating more than a century ago. The commission is scheduled to begin hearings in a few weeks, and if things go as Grand Trunk hopes and the industry expects, the giant Canadian carrier will acquire the small but strategically placed Midwestern line sometime in early 1984. A purchase price of $250 million for the 3,100-mile system has been agreed to, with Grand Trunk assuming certain debts and obligations of the Milwaukee Road's other holdings. Grand Trunk's goal has always been to take advantage of Chicago's central location in the Middle West, and the proposed purchase would link Grand Trunk's network of lines east of Chicago with the Milwaukee Road's lines in the Plains states to the north and west. As John H. Burdakin, Grand Trunk's president, put it: ''The beauty of this transaction is the natural end-to-end fit. This configuration will open new gateways and markets.''

The president of the New York City Transit Authority says passengers on subway lines and buses can expect a cooler ride this summer than last. ''We're in better shape than last year for whatever the weatherman doles out,'' said the president, John D. Simpson. The outlook was more optimistic than the one Mr. Simpson expressed a year ago, when he warned that air-conditioning units might not be up to the task. ''Let's hope for a cool summer,'' he said then.

Senator Alfonse M. D'Amato boarded a private jet the other day and flew to Syracuse for a cocktail party to raise money for his 1986 re-election campaign. About 70 guests mingled with the Senator and became members of his Senate Club by pledging to give $200 a year. New York's Republican Senator has been conducting such fund events systematically since taking office, and they have helped him raise more money for his 1986 campaign than have any of the 32 other Senators up for re-election that year, according to records of the Federal Election Commission. In Mr. D'Amato's first two years in the Senate, his reports to the commission show, he raised $972,643 and spent a third of that paying back his 1980 campaign debt. By the end of last year, after other political and official expenses, he had $430,574 for his 1986 race.

The appeal by President Francois Mitterrand of France for a highlevel Bretton Woods-like conference to lay the basis for a more stable international monetary system comes at a time of continuing problems for the French economy as well as instability for its currency. While many economists agree that something needs to be done to reform the international monetary system, few agree on what reforms should be enacted or whether they would work. In his remarks, the French leader posited that regulating exchange rates was the cornerstone of world economic recovery. In Mr. Mitterrand's words, ''It all begins with currency.''

An article in Metropolitan Report on Saturday about the Cathedral of St. John the Divine misidentified the Very Rev. James Parks Morton. He is dean of the cathedral.

International Israel and Lebanon finished the text of their security agreement and the accord was ready to sign, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry announced. The Lebanese and Israeli Parliaments are scheduled to vote on the agreement today, but approval is not legally required by either body. The Israeli radio reported that the agreement might be signed tomorrow in Lebanon and Israel. (Page A1, Column 6.) Soviet missile installations in Syria have led Syrians to hope for a change in the balance of power in the Middle East. According to Syrian sources and Western intelligence officers, the two installations have SAM-5 antiaircraft missiles, which have been deployed outside the Soviet Union for the first time and which are controlled by the Russians. (A1:3.)

Israeli and Lebanese negotiators completed work today on the text of their security agreement, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry announced. He said the accord was ready to sign. The accord lays the basis for a withdrawal of Israeli soldiers from Lebanon, provided Syria and the Palestine Liberation Organization also withdraw their forces from the country. Israel has also demanded, before withdrawal, a return of Israelis held prisoner and an accounting of all those missing in action.