What was going on when I was born?

Hunger is emerging again as a national issue even as Government stocks of surplus dairy products rise to record levels. The United States Conference of Mayors recently declared that hunger had become ''the most prevalent and the most insidious'' problem facing the nation's cities. The General Accounting Office, an investigative arm of Congress, reported that while ''no one knows precisely how many Americans are going hungry,'' visits to food distribution centers across the country found that hunger had increased in the last two years, partly as a result of high unemployment. An Appeal to Government The National Association of Counties, pleading for Federal help in dealing with a heavy human services caseload, called Sunday for expanded Federal food distribution programs and restoration of food stamp cutbacks.

A German has solved a problem that has baffled mathematicians for more than 60 years and has taken a major step toward solving another that has stumped the profession for three centuries. The German mathematician is Dr. Gerd Faltings, 29 years old, of Wuppertal University, in Wuppertal, West Germany. The problems he has solved lie in the esoteric realms of number theory and algebraic geometry; they relate to the number of solutions that exist for certain kinds of mathematical equations. A 40-page manuscript by Dr. Faltings is now circulating among American mathematicians and is sparking ripples of excitement. Serge Lang, professor of mathematics at Yale University, said Dr. Faltings has solved ''one of the outstanding problems of the century.''

The American educational system has ''deeply entrenched and virtually chronic'' problems and should undergo ''far-reaching restructuring,'' according to a comprehensive study that involved eight years and more than 27,000 interviews. The report, ''A Study of Schooling,'' portrays public school classrooms on all grade levels as a world of talky teachers and uninterested students, who work in a context of unclear goals and serious social and educational inequities. ''American schools are in trouble,'' said the study's director, John I. Goodlad, former dean of the Graduate School of Education at the University of California at Los Angeles. ''Large numbers of students are leaving school ill-prepared for jobs and effective citizenship, and even many of those who appear to be 'making it' are short-changed.'' 43 Researchers Aided Him Mr. Goodlad's study consisted of systematic classroom observation by 43 researchers in 13 communities, as well as questionnaires and interviews. It was sponsored by the Institute for the Development of Educational Activities, an independent reserch organization.

Tax shelters -investment devices designed to shelter income from taxation, usually for a period of years - appear to be on the rise, despite widespread predictions that lower tax rates would reduce their use. Furthermore, experts say the shelters are increasingly spreading from the investment portfolios of the rich to those of the middle class, some with no more than $5,000 to invest. And although certain kinds of tax shelters, such as those dealing with oil and gas, appear to have lost some of their allure during the recent recession, others, such as those in real estate, seem to hold more attraction than ever. ''There's been tremendous activity in the past few months,'' said Douglas W. Banks, a real estate specialist in the Washington office of Touche, Ross & Company, a major accounting firm. Limited Partnerships Measuring tax shelter activity is difficult. In fact, there is no formal definition of just which of a vast array of tax-favored activities should be regarded as shelters. But at least one measure, the public sale of investments registered as limited partnerships, which is how most tax shelters are sold, shows enormous growth.

Private banks virtually suspended new lending to developing countries and to smaller industrial nations during the first quarter, a major international financial instituion reported today. If such cutbacks continued, they could abort the emerging economic recovery, it added. In its latest quarterly report on bank lending, the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, said the lending to the third world and smaller industrial nations, after deductions of repayments of loans outstanding, came to only $500 million in the January-March period. By comparison, lending totaled $9 billion in the last three months of 1982 and averaged $9.8 billion in each quarter last year. During 1981, banks made new loans totaling $65.5 billion to the third world and the smaller industrial nations, an average of almost $16.4 billion a quarter.

Drivers involved in serious accidents in New York State can be forced to undergo a chemical blood test for alcohol or drugs, under legislation signed today by Governor Cuomo. Under the legislation, police officers or district attorneys will be able to obtain court orders by telephone to force the administration of the test in an accident involving death or serious injury. Mr. Cuomo signed 19 other measures passed in the closing days of the legislative session and vetoed 6 others. Mr. Cuomo said the blood-test measure would aid the prosecution of drunken drivers. In the past, a driver who refused to take the test faced a mandatory six-month suspension of his operator's license.

''If I were to choose between those new bills and martial law, I would choose martial law.

A Congressional hearing in Harlem into allegations of police brutality toward blacks convened and adjourned within 20 minutes yesterday, amid shouts of ''sham'' from spectators complaining that hundreds could not get into the overcrowded room. In addition to the cramped quarters, the sound system went awry in a room holding part of the overflow crowd, and it apparently would have taken too long to install loudspeakers for those outside the building. The chairman of the hearing, Representative John Conyers Jr., who heads the House Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, said at a news conference after he recessed the meeting, ''The intense interest in the subject matter precludes us from going forward with this hearing.'' The Michigan Democrat then adjourned the session before any testimony had been given and without returning to the hearing room, at the Harlem State Office Bulding on West 125th Street. No time or place was set for a new session, but Congressional staff members said privately that they had not expected so large a turnout and predicted that the hearing would be held before the end of September.

Nigeria promised to reduce oil production, and officials of OPEC, which is holding its regular semiannual meeting in Helsinki, said this commitment would keep intact the March agreement on production ceilings at least until October. (Page D1.) Private banks all but stopped new lending to developing nations and smaller industrial countries during the first quarter, according to the Bank for International Settlements. If the practice continues, the bank said, it could curtail world recovery. (D1.)

An article June 28 about the sale of Mondrian's painting ''Composition With Red, Blue and Yellow,'' at Christie's in London, misidentified the collection from which it was sold and, through an editing error, one seller. It was from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Armand P. Bartos. Mr. Bartos is a native of New York.

A former diamond company executive was indicted in Manhattan yesterday on charges of conspiracy and murder in the death of a Federal witness and the disappearance and presumed murder of a potential witness. The executive, Irwin Margolies, was also accused of conspiring to murder a lawyer for John P. Maguire & Company, whose disclosure of a $5.7 million fraud led to a Federal investigation of Mr. Margolies and his now defunct Candor Diamond Company. A Federal charge against Mr. Margolies stemming from the purported murder conspiracy against the lawyer has been dropped in favor of the state prosecution. According to the state indictment, the Federal investigation touched off a series of events that culminated in the slayings on April 12, 1982 of the witness, Margaret Barbera, and three CBS technicians who tried to aid her. Miss Barbera had been Candor's controller and, according to the indictment, 18 days before her death had agreed to cooperate with the Federal investigation.

International Two Caribbean military exercises within the next four weeks are being planned by the Reagan Administration, according to Administration officials. They said the big exercises, which will be held in both the Caribbean and Central America, would involve ground, air and naval forces and are intended as a warning that Washington has the means to halt the shipment of military supplies from Cuba to Nicaragua. (Page A1, Column 6.) Bipartisanship on Central America is sought by President Reagan. He announced he would establish a bipartisan Presidential commission headed by former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger to ''lay the foundation for a long-term unified national approach'' to problems in the region. (A1:5.)