What was going on when I was born?

A bill designed to protect new-car buyers in New York State from defective vehicles known as ''lemons'' overwhelmingly passed both houses of the Legislature today. Governor Cuomo is expected to sign it. The measure has been praised by consumer activists as a significant step forward in consumer protection, but the three major American automobile manufacturers have criticized it as unnecessary. Connecticut, California and Minnesota have similar laws, although they are regarded as weaker than the bill that passed here today.

The Supreme Court today took a step it has been hinting at and ordered an appellant to pay damages to the other side, $500 in this case, as a penalty for bringing a ''frivolous'' appeal. It was the first time the Justices invoked a provision they added three years ago to the Court's rules of procedure. The provision, Rule 49.2, permits the Court to award ''appropriate damages'' when an appeal is ''frivolous.''

PERHAPS the least known part of the City University of New York has been its Graduate School. Now, however, many of its quietly developed doctoral programs are gaining national recognition, placing the university for the first time among the leading research institutions in certain fields. Affirmation of this achievement, just 18 years after the Graduate School granted its first Ph.D., is contained in the results of a survey released this spring by the Conference Board of Associated Research Councils. Six of the City University's doctoral programs - anthropology, English, French, history, linguistics and music - ranked among the 15 best in the country in their fields. ''This recognition, in effect, acknowledges the quality of the university's overall faculty because most of those teaching in the doctoral program also teach at the undergraduate colleges,'' said Joseph S. Murphy, chancellor of the City University.

A Federal judge today ordered Connecticut to stop enforcing its law banning double-trailer trucks. The judge, Jose A. Cabranes of the United States District Court here, ruled that the state law violated the constitutional powers of Congress to regulate interstate commerce. State officials said they would appeal the decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York and, if necessary, to the Supreme Court of the United States. They also said they would seek a stay to delay the effect of Judge Cabranes's preliminary injunction, which was issued at the request of the Department of Justice.

The United States Commission on Civil Rights said today it was ''disappointed and concerned'' that President Reagan had not appointed more blacks, women and Hispanic Americans to full-time, high-level positions in the Federal Government. The commission's appraisal came less than three weeks after Mr. Reagan announced his intention to replace three members of the panel. It follows 19 months of growing conflict between the White House and commission members who have defiantly questioned the President's commitment to civil rights in education and employment, among other fields. All six members, including the chairman, Clarence M. Pendleton Jr., voted in favor of the statement today.

Administration officials say that the number of guerrillas fighting the Nicaraguan Government has increased by about one-third to 8,000 in the last two months and that the rebels have enough support inside the country now to continue fighting without United States backing. Intelligence estimates worked on by analysts from several departments and agencies predict that the forces will grow larger and that in six months they will control almost one-third of the population in rural areas and more than half of Nicaragua's 57,143 square miles of territory, officials said. It could not be determined whether these were formal estimates that had been presented to President Reagan. 25,000 Nicaraguan Soldiers The officials did not specify the amount of territory now under the control of the anti-Sandinist forces, except to say that it was a greater amount in the south than the north.

BEN FRANKLIN and King George III rarely saw eye to eye on anything, including lightning rods. Franklin believed lightning rods should have sharp tips, the sharper the better. George, who often felt like telling Ben to go fly a kite, disagreed and had his palace equipped with blunt rods. And so the Americans and British went their separate ways not only politically but on the relative merits of lightning rod configuration. It thus comes as something of a bolt out of the blue to learn that American scientists are now conceding that Franklin, the authority on electricity and inventor of the lightning rod, was wrong while George, the monarch with an interest in technology but no particular expertise, was right. Experiments in recent years show that blunttipped rods, suitably grounded, are more effective than the sharply pointed ones in routing lightning harmlessly to earth. Dr. Charles B. Moore, a New Mexico physicist, reported in a recent issue of The Journal of the Franklin Institute that the electric fields above the blunter rods were as much as two times stronger over greater distances than those above the sharp rods. This, he said, ''can be significant in the possible interception of an approaching lightning streamer.''

Western central bankers, at their annual meeting here, today called on private commercial banks to expand their lending to heavily indebted third world countries ''over a period of years'' to prevent another round of international debt problems. If these problems persist, the bankers said, they could destroy hopes of economic recovery. The thrust of the warning, according to delegates here for the annual general meeting of the Bank for International Settlements, was that the problems created by the heavy indebtedness of many developing countries cannot be solved by monetary authorities alone, and that continued lending by private creditors and the International Monetary Fund is indispensable. Alexandre Lamfalussy, economic adviser to the settlements bank, said at a news conference that private banks must continue to increase their lending to the developing world to keep these countries solvent and enable them to import. Between 1974 and 1983, he noted, private banks lent $132 billion to the developing world, financing about 45 percent of its aggregate deficits in overseas payments.

An article in Business Day June 6about John Fedders of the Securities and Exchange Commission incorrectly reported Orin E. Atkins's tenure as chief executive officer of Ashland Oil Inc. He resigned in September 1981, two months before Bernard H. Barnett, a lawyer, reportedly complained to Mr. Fedders about an S.E.C. investigation of Ashland.

Poland proposed today that it make no further payment of foreign debt to Western banks until 1991 and after that stretch out repayment over 14 years. The unusual proposal was outlined by Deputy Prime Minister Janusz Obodowski at a news conference here just before a group of Western bankers was to meet with Polish officials in Vienna to discuss the troubled Polish economy and Poland's $14 billion in Western bank debts. Mr. Obodowski said the proposal would be put forward at the Vienna meeting. (In Bonn, a banker said of Mr. Obodowski's proposal: ''This announcement means they're going into this round of negotiations with a maximalist position. There is no chance of its being accepted as such.'')

''Today, Neptune; yesterday, Pluto, and tomorrow, on to the stars.'' -Jack Dyer, chief of spacecraft operations for Pioneer 10. (A1:1.)

The Federal Reserve Board today adopted new minimium capital standards that will require five of the nation's largest banks to raise $800 million in new capital funds. Four of the banks are in New York, and the other is the BankAmerica Corporation, San Francisco. The Fed guidelines, approved unanimously at one of the board's regular public meetings, require a higher ratio of capital to assets, which consist mostly of outstanding loans. The new rules take effect immediately, and the banks are likely to be given 12 to 18 months in which to comply.