What was going on when I was born?

A Manhattan jewelry manufacturer suspected of heading a conspiracy that resulted in the slayings of two Federal witnesses and three CBS technicians was charged yesterday with trying to have a lawyer killed. The jeweler, Irwin M. Margolies, was accused in Federal court of paying a gunman $15,000 to murder the lawyer, David Blejwas. Mr. Blejwas had helped expose a $5.7 million fraud by the jeweler. Mr. Margolies, according to the charges, tried to arrange the killing during the last five months from inside a jail where he has begun serving a 28-year term for his conviction in the fraud case. John S. Martin Jr., the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, who announced the charges, said the murder plot failed when the gunman hired by Mr. Margolies, another inmate, informed Federal law enforcement officials. The complaint against Mr. Margolies is before a Federal grand jury for action, Mr. Martin said.

Modern communications is making it easier for investors and small securities firms to get an inside view of Government securities prices that were once the exclusive domain of firms specializing in that market. While major securities dealers rely primarily on telephone calls and personal visits with their customers, modern technology is making bid and asked prices available to thousands of potential customers who have video screens operated by Telerate Systems and Reuters Inc. In recent months, two developments have dramatically broadened the availability of information about the Treasury securities market. In early April, Newcomb Securities began a brokerage operation in which quotes were published on thousands of video screens operated by Reuters. Yesterday, Telerate announced that 16 primary dealers in Government securities would publish quotes for Treasury and agency issues throughout the business day.

A picture caption in Business Day on Tuesday, accompanying an article on productivity, misidentified two men. William J. Baumol was on the left and Edward N. Wolff on the right.

The Reagan Administration has recalled Philip C. Habib, the Middle East special envoy, and several ambassadors for a high-level policy review next week on what the United States should do to end the impasse that developed after Syria's refusal to withdraw its forces from Lebanon. Nicholas A. Veliotes, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, disclosed the plans for the review in testimony today before the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on the Middle East. He said Secretary of State George P. Shultz would consult with President Reagan as part of the overall discussion. Mr. Habib, who has been in the Middle East since the conclusion of the Israeli-Lebanese troop withdrawal accord by Mr. Shultz, has returned to the United States. After a few days in California he is to come to Washington, Mr. Veliotes said. The other Middle East special envoy, Morris Draper, is already in Washington.

The promoters of the New York Grand Prix auto race said yesterday that they were dropping plans to hold the event this September in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, but intended to go ahead with the race next year. The promoters said it would be impossible to complete an environmental impact study required by state law before the the scheduled beginning of the three-day event on Sept. 22. ''I don't think there's any doubt in anybody's mind that the Grand Prix can successfully complete the environmental review,'' said Lloyd Kaplan, a spokesman for the promoters. ''But it's a process that most of the time takes six to eight months. We don't have that much time left.''

In an attempt to reverse some of the budgetcutting moves of the last two years, the House today voted to appropriate $54.4 billion for the Department of Housing and Urban Development and several independent agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency. The vote was 216 to 143. The measure exceeded President Reagan's request by about $9.6 billion. In debate on the bill, the lawmakers voted to add $225 million for the environmental agency despite a plea from its Administrator, William D. Ruckelshaus, that Congress take no action until he has completed a review of the agency's financial and personnel needs.

Yuri V. Andropov said today that the Soviet Union had a ''sincere and fervent desire'' to restore normal relations with the United States and was ''ready and interested in seeking joint initiatives'' to that end. At a meeting with W. Averell Harriman, a former American envoy here, Mr. Andropov blamed the Reagan Administration for a situation that, as he put it, ''cannot but give rise to alarm.'' The Soviet leader appealed for a return to peaceful coexistence. ''In view of the overall strategic situation and the growing number of explosive problems around the world, the U.S.S.R. and the United States cannot allow themselves to be drawn toward military competition,'' he said.

The race for the next generation of computer memory chips has entered the first turn, and Japanese producers are out in front of their American counterparts. The prizes are substantial. Sales of the new chip, the 256K dynamic RAM, could begin in a small way in the coming months and are expected to reach at least $2 billion a year by the late 1980's. That would make the chip the biggest single product in the semiconductor industry's history. It will not be the first race in which American semiconductor companies came in second. The American companies, long the worldwide leaders in the industry, were stunned when the Japanese newcomers beat them to the market with the current generation of RAM's, the 64K, and captured up to 70 percent of the world market early in the 1980's. The Japanese had only a 40 percent share in the market for the previous generation, the 16K RAM's, and almost no presence in the business before that.

NEW YORK'S - and quite possibly the world's - most civilized stretch of boulevard is the section of Fifth Avenue from 82d to 104th Street known as Museum Mile, which takes in no fewer than 10 of the city's prized cultural institutions. It begins with the mighty bulk of the Metropolitan Museum, where global art history is on formal parade, and ends with the humbler but feisty El Museo del Barrio, which focuses on the art of Puerto Rico and Latin America. On Tuesday night, from 6 to 9, the treasures within these buildings -some of them architectural gems in themselves - may be sampled free (the Metropolitan Museum has a suggested admission fee) along with outdoor entertainment, in Museum Mile's fifth street festival. For those three hours, upper Fifth Avenue will become a pedestrian mall, with the festivities inaugurated at 6 P.M. by Mayor Koch and Bess Myerson, the city's Commissioner for Cultural Affairs, at El Museo del Barrio, on the avenue at 104th Street (additional information, 722-1313). But for those who cannot wait until Tuesday or who might not be able to attend the festivities on a weekday evening, this weekend provides a good opportunity for a preview.

The chief of the Justice Department's antitrust division said yesterday that corporate mergers were healthy for the economy and that very few new rules were needed to assure orderly tender offers. The takeovers, regardless of whether they are desired by the top executives of the companies being acquired, are a ''very socially beneficial mechanism,'' said William F. Baxter, an Assistant Attorney General. His antitrust division investigates proposed mergers and other corporate activities to determine whether they might reduce competition in violation of antitrust laws. Takeovers are part of ''a mechanism that enables corporate assets to be shifted from lower- to higher-value uses'' and are ''one of the most important functions that our capital markets perform,'' Mr. Baxter said.

IT'S shorter than a vacation, yet longer than a movie or a trip to the zoo. It's often a cooling experience and sometimes a humbling one that generates energy and fresh thoughts. And in a water-bounded city like New York, it is usually only minutes away. The it is a boat ride, a fine warm-weather recreation for a weekend in June, and once you get on board, the daily grind can seem 1,000 nautical miles behind. To take one popular example, New Yorkers have long used the Staten Island Ferry as both a commuter boat and a recreational cure. There are many other boats in the area - rowboats, fishing boats, sailboats, excursion boats. Not too far from Manhattan, you can take a boat that dredges for clams, or you can sail the Atlantic in search of whales.

International Increased American involvement in Central Ameria is being weighed by senior Reagan Administration officials, who are convinced that the United States military presence there is too small to realize the policy goals set by President Reagan. Senior national security officials are reviewing a range of options that include a modest increase in the number of military advisers in El Salvador, a substantial expansion of United States military cooperation with Honduras and a renewal of military aid to Guatemala. (Page A1, Column 6.) The new Ambassador to El Salvador is to be Thomas R. Pickering, a career Foreign Service officer. The choice was announced by Secretary of State George P. Shultz. (A11:1-3.)