What was going on when I was born?

Syria last week pursued its spoiler's role against the recently signed Israeli-Lebanese accord. Syrian MIG's, in action for the first time since last summer's cease-fire, launched air-to-air missiles against an Israeli reconnaissance drone and Syrian ground missiles tried to hit an Israeli helicopter over the Bekaa region of Eastern Lebanon. Yesterday, Israeli planes encountered antiaircraft fire, possibly from Palestinian forces stationed with the Syrians. Lebanese security sources said the Israeli drone had been shot down, but Israel denied any losses to its planes and held its fire.

With a display of Colonial pageantry, President Reagan opened the summit conference of major industrial democracies today and held an extensive dinner discussion with the allies on arms negotiations with the Soviet Union. After greeting the participants in three hours of arrival ceremonies, Mr. Reagan held separate meetings with President Francois Mitterrand and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of Britain at Providence Hall, a beige clapboard house that is his residence during the meeting. Senior Administration officials said Mr. Reagan came away with renewed support from them for the American negotiating position on nuclear missiles. Reaction to Soviet Threat Earlier today, the United States reacted sharply to a Soviet threat to deploy new nuclear weapons in Eastern Europe. The State Department accused Moscow of seeking ''military superiority and thus global hegemony.'' (Page 15.)

THE BIRTH OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF ANTARCTICA, By John Calvin Batchelor. 403 pp. New York: The Dial Press. $16.95. Novels used to be named after people or places, or their titles were literary allusions. But now they often arrive wearing elaborate disguises - ''The Floating Opera,'' ''Why Are We In Vietnam?,'' ''The Crying of Lot 49,'' ''The 158-Pound Marriage'' or whatever - as if we have no business knowing what's in them until we've bought and read them. Doris Lessing is the current champion of this art, but with ''The Birth of the People's Republic of Antarctica,'' John Calvin Batchelor (whose first novel was ''The Further Adventures of Halley's Comet'') looks like a strong contender. But you can't judge a book by its title. Like Doris Lessing's, Mr. Batchelor's game is anything but whimsy, and though his new book several times calls itself a ''comedy,'' it is so only in the Dantesque sense. Mr. Batchelor's people wear odd labels: The Swedish-American narrator and hero is called Grim Fiddle, and other characters carry such given names as Peregrine, Cleopatra, Lazarus, Mord, Germanicus, Elephant, Increase, Charity, Learned and Christmas. Yet these are not jokes but (as seems understandable in a writer whose own Christian name is John Calvin) ways of creating at least the atmosphere of moral allegory. And as in all but the finest allegory, their names are the most vivid thing about these figures, who are remarkably hard to keep straight as the story proceeds.

PILGERMANN, By Russell Hoban. 240 pp. New York: Summit Books. $14.95. RUSSELL HOBAN, a 58-year-old American living in London, has written dozens of books for children, but his fiction for adults reveals a sensibility anything but childlike. Two years ago he startled readers with ''Riddley Walker,'' a haunting portrayal of life in a post-Armageddon landscape. Now, in ''Pilgermann,'' the scene shifts dramatically from imagined future to historical past, but the harrowing vision remains essentially unchanged. The world according to Pilgermann is a brutish place where bodies are boiled and devoured and human heads are used as cannonballs. ''The heads slung into Antioch by the Franks were the heads of Turks killed in battle but the heads slung out of Antioch by the Turks were not those of Franks; they were the heads of Syrian and Armenian Christians of Antioch.''

TRENTON ENROLLED Democrats and Republicans will go to the polls June 7 to select candidates for 120 seats in the Legislature - 40 in the Senate and 80 in the Assembly - and although many incumbents are running for renomination without opposition, there are several heated contests. The primary-election winners will figure in the important general election campaign in November, when control of the Legislature is at stake. Democrats hold a 20-to-19 edge in the Senate, with one vacancy, and a 43-to-37 majority in the Assembly. Governor Kean is expected to play an active role in promoting Republican candidates this year in the hope of getting what eluded him when he won the governorship in 1981: a Republican Legislature that he can work with instead of a Democratic Legislature that he has had to spar with.

The safety-deposit vaults of commercial banks have been among the most secure places for personal valuables, but until the recent development of the 24-hour vault, accessibility to property in the vaults was limited to banking hours. Next month, one of the area's first around-the-clock safetydeposit facilities will open in Manhasset, L.I. The Zurich Depository Corporation, a new company that, despite its name, has no ties with any Swiss concern, is developing the Long Island vault center.

BY day, and often by night, he toils as a county civil servant. But in the early hours, when his time is his own, he sits alone in the second-floor study of his Yonkers home and writes, one more Westchester author in search of a publisher. With nearly 400 pages to show for his efforts, he occasionally indulges in a flight of fancy: one day he will be included among a pantheon of contemporary masters of suspense: John LeCarre, Robert Ludlum, Andrew P. O'Rourke, Ken Follett, Len Deighton. Andrew P. O'Rourke? ''I think Walter Mitty fantasies are wonderful,'' Mr. O'Rourke exclaimed, between sips of morning coffee and bites of a homemade muffin. ''I've had a few in my time, and some have come true. I got to be County Executive.''

TRENTON APOLICY that recognizes experience, not certification, as the determining factor in teacher seniority rights is expected to be voted on Wednesday by the State Board of Education. Recommended by Dr. Saul Cooperman, the state's Commissioner of Education, the proposed revisions mandate that senority rights in secondary education be acquired by actual instructional experience in a subject. Under present regulations, seniority is based solely on certification and the number of years that a teacher has worked in a school district. For example, a teacher certified in mathematics and science at the time of employment may never have taught mathematics, but would accrue seniority rights in both subjects and could presumably replace an experienced mathematics teacher should the staff be reduced.

With the death of George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins is surely the most distinguished choreographer associated with an American ballet company. Mr. Robbins, who joined the New York City Ballet in 1949, is now, along with Peter Martins, one of City Ballet's two ballet masters in chief. That company has always been a creative organization, stressing the production of new works and, season after season, Balanchine choreographed one new ballet after another. Mr. Robbins is known as a slower worker. Yet, although he has announced no specific plans for the future, Mr. Robbins, along with Mr. Martins and John Taras, the City Ballet's third ballet master, have affirmed that the company's emphasis upon creativity will continue. As evidence, there are Mr. Robbins's two ambitious premieres this spring. Over the years, Mr. Robbins has been an unusually versatile choreographer. His ballets include studies of contemporary American life, lyrical pieces to Chopin, a ballet in silence and a ballet in slow motion. His two latest efforts exemplify his range, for one has music by a leading composer of the so-called ''minimalist'' school, while the other honors a great dancing star of stage and screen.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission is having a sale of sorts. It has marked down its 1979 booklet, ''A Guide to New York City Landmarks,'' from the original price of $1 to just 60 cents for anyone who wants to be sent a copy by mail.

CONNECTICUT'S resident state trooper system is under intense scrutiny for the first time since it was established more than 35 years ago. Prompted by a number of police bills introduced in this year's session of the General Assembly, because of concern both over costs and quality of local policing, the legislature's Committee on Public Safety has voted to set up a task force to do a study this summer of the state trooper program and other methods of policing the state's municipalities. Another committee was appointed by the state police at the request of the Council of Small Towns in Hartford after a number of local officials voiced concern over the troopers' role in their municipalities. That committee - composed of five representatives from the state police and four first selectmen - recently released its recommendations, which stress ways to achieve better communications among the troopers, their superior officers and local officials. Resident troopers are assigned to 45 towns, including more than half of the state's 80 towns with populations under 15,000. Usually these troopers, who patrol only the one town, work alone or, if the town has them, with part-time constables. Ten towns have two troopers assigned to them, and four towns have three troopers. The troopers are no longer required to live in the town where they are assigned. By law, they are responsible only to their superior officers, and not to local officials.

President Reagan has decided to replace Deane R. Hinton as Ambassador to El Salvador, Administration officials said today. The disclosure of Mr. Reagan's intention came a day after the Administration announced that it was replacing Thomas O. Enders as Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs. The decision appeared to be part of the Administration's effort to strengthen control of its policy on Central America, which Mr. Reagan has made one of his top foreign-policy priorities.