What was going on when I was born?

International Washington criticized apartheid as ''morally wrong'' in the Reagan Administration's most comprehensive statement on southern Africa in nearly two years. The Administration said that South Africa's racial separation policies would inevitably be dropped and that it was therefore crucial for the United States to help insure that this occurs peacefully and not violently. (Page A1, Column 1.) Yasir Arafat assailed Syria, accusing Damascus of orchestrating the rebellion against him by dissident Fatah officers to undermine his leadership and bring the Palestine Liberation Organization under direct Syrian control. He told reporters that Syrian forces were choking off all supplies to his supporters in Lebanon. (A9:1-2.)

David M. Roderick, chairman of the United States Steel Corporation, met privately yesterday in New York with Ian MacGregor, chairman of the British Steel Corporation, to discuss U.S. Steel's controversial plan to import unfinished British steel. The meeting ''produced no definitive agreement,'' said William Keslar, a U.S. Steel spokesman. Mr. Keslar added that discussions will continue, although he did not give a timetable. When negotiations between the two companies were first announced, July 1 had been indicated as a deadline beyond which the companies would come to terms or cut off talks. However, negotiations are now expected to continue beyond that date.

New York State has selected an isolated site on the Harlem River in the Bronx for a new 1,000-cell maximum-security state prison, senior aides to Governor Cuomo and Mayor Koch said tonight. The plan to build the prison has been agreed to in principle by New York City, the aides said. It calls for the construction of two 500-cell towers with recreation yards surrounded by a wall or a high security fence, in an area adjacent to Metro-North railroad yards near East 132d Street. The site is between the Willis Avenue and Third Avenue Bridges on the Harlem River.

'' In purely practical terms, it is obviously easier for action to be taken by one House without submission to the President; but it is crystal clear from the records of the Convention, contemporaneous writings and debates, that the Framers ranked other values higher than efficiency.'' - Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, in the Supreme Court's decision declaring the so-called legislative veto unconstitutional. (B5:6.)

New York City's Rent Guidelines Board, in a raucous five-hour meeting that was twice stopped by shouting and sign-waving demonstrators, yesterday approved basic increases of 4, 7 and 10 percent for the 300,000 rent-stabilized apartments whose leases expire in the 12 months starting Oct. 1. The percentage increases, which apply to one-, two- and three-year leases, respectively, are the same as those the board approved in 1982. The board approved an additional increase of $10 a month for the owners of apartments renting for $200 a month or less. It also approved a complex provision allowing a special one-time surcharge - a vacancy allowance - of up to 15 percent on apartments that had been vacant before being rented.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said yesterday that it had found major flaws in the emergency evacation plan submitted by the Long Island Lighting Company for its nearly completed Shoreham nuclear power plant. The agency, which advises the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on emergency preparedness, said in a report to the commission that it could not determine whether the Lilco plan was ''capable of being implemented'' until it was shown that utility workers could direct traffic, advise residents to evacuate and do other work that would be necessary in a radiation emergency. Lilco had submitted its plan directly to the commission in an effort to gain permission to load nuclear fuel at the plant and begin low-power testing in August. The N.R.C. must now review the agency's report and decide if such permission should be granted.

Friday ITALIAN FOLK MUSIC REVIVED Although Italian folk music was a vital part of daily life among early Italian immigrants, it isn't well known to later Italian-American generations, according to the Ethnic Folk Arts Center, which has set out to help rectify the situation. The center is touring Italian-American communities in the Northeast with performances of music from Southern Italy - songs, typically filled with sadness and longing, and sung in a high-pitched, intense style, and instrumental music, typically lively and joyful with propelling rhythms. Tonight at 8 the site will be the public library at 92-24 Rockaway Boulevard in Ozone Park, Queens (free); tomorrow at 8, St. Joseph's Center, 28-46 44th Street in Astoria, Queens ($2), and Sunday at 7 at P.S. 205, 20th Avenue and 67th Street in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn ($5).

Representative John D. Dingell said today that Citicorp documents recently obtained by his staff had lent ''substantial additional weight'' to accusations that the bank and its lawyers failed to adequately disclose information about the legality of some currency transactions in the 1970's. Mr. Dingell, a Democrat from Michigan, is chairman of a House subcommittee that will hold hearings next week on Citicorp transactions. A memorandum from Mr. Dingell, which he sent to subcommittee members and made public today, said the documents included damaging opinions by European auditors and lawyers of some bank practices. The memo also said Citibank had refused to turn over these documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission during a threeyear investigation by the commission, which ended in 1981. He said the bank had ''strenuously resisted'' turning them over to his subcommittee.

Governor Cuomo and the legislative leaders agreed today on a plan to help New York City and the 57 counties outside the city deal with the rapidly rising costs of Medicaid. The announcement was hailed by Mayor Koch and other officials. They termed the compromise a major breakthrough in an eight-year battle in which the city and the state's counties had argued that rising Medicaid costs threatened their fiscal solvency and forced them to increase local taxes. Under the program, which would be phased in over three years, the local share of costs for long-term care, such as nursing homes and home health care, would be reduced from 25 to 10 percent.

An article yesterday about the New York Philharmonic's free Parks Concerts gave an incorrect date for the one in Battery Park. It is Aug. 25, at 12:30 P.M.

Over the strenuous objections of President Reagan, both houses of Congress today approved a compromise 1984 Federal budget that mandates higher taxes, lower military spending and more domestic spending than the Administration requested. The House vote, which came first, was 239 to 186. Early this evening the Senate followed suit, 51 to 43. The spending plan, which apportions $849.6 billion for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, took almost two weeks to produce in a House-Senate conference. The deficit is projected to range from $170 billion to $179 billion, depending on how much Congress decides to spend for recession relief measures.

Congressional supporters and opponents of the legislative veto agreed today that the Supreme Court decision would create conflict on Capitol Hill and significantly alter the way Congress conducts its business. They predicted that in place of the legislative veto, which was struck down today by the Supreme Court, Congress would pass tighter restrictions on Presidential authority and rely more heavily on the power of the purse and overseeing authority. ''This decision is going to create a lot of conflict and chaos,'' said Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan. ''We're either going to tie the President's hands too much, and require the President to come to Congress for everything, or we're going to give him too much power,'' the Senator said. ''We're going to be losing the subtlety of a flexible mechanism.''