What was going on when I was born?

"My mother and father came to this country on a boat from Russia, i lliterate immigrants. The boats are still coming. How much are we w illing to share to strengthen this land of immigrants?" - Kirk D ouglas, on receiving an award from the American Institute for PublicS ervice. (A13:1)

President Reagan personally called wavering lawmakers today to appeal for the MX missile as Congressional leaders reported that the weapon system could be in trouble when the House of Representatives takes up the issue on Wednesday. House Speaker Thomas P. O'Neill Jr., an opponent of the MX, said an amendment to cut out the funds to buy the new missile could pass if it attracted 10 more votes. He gave credit to opponents of the missile around the country who have been conducting a campaign to stir up opposition. ''People on the other side are doing their fair share of work,'' said Mr. O'Neill, a Massachusetts Democrat. ''It's closed up considerably. There's been a tremendous influx of telephone calls and mail, and that often persuades a member.''

To insure the life of the Statue of Liberty, all of the iron supports for the copper exterior of the 97-year-old monument will have to be replaced during two years of restoration work, a team of American and French architects said today. The team has done a study that pinpoints 13 trouble spots in the statue. It will form the basis for restoration that is to begin this autumn and confirms observations made in the last several years by the National Park Service, which manages the statue.

On bus and train, by foot and by subway and in lines of crawling cars, millions of commuters are sweltering through a bad case of July. Their daily ritual has become a test of their mettle -physical and mental. They have sought a break, a breeze, air-conditioning that works. A few have found it, but for most there has been only more heat - a monotonous heat, the same stale air that was around yesterday and the day before. The commuters' days begin badly, their clock-radios clucking about a temperature near 80 at dawn and headed high with the sun. Suits soaked and demeanors soured by 9 A.M., they descend on their jobs, an army of ill humor. At day's end, they repeat the misery. Some thrive under duress, and all somehow survive, adapting with extra shirts, ice-cream breakfasts and an expert ability to divine the train or bus that has its air-conditioner on.

The Nicaraguan Government, marking the fourth anniversary of its revolution, announced today that it was willing to participate in international talks to achieve peace in Central America. It also called for negotiations on other points previously raised by the United States, including arms supplies and military support for the leftist rebels battling the Government of El Salvador. The announcements were made by Daniel Ortega Saavedra, the coordinator of the governing junta, in the main anniversary address. He said the Nicaraguan decision to enter into international talks was aimed at ending ''the excuses used against Nicaragua'' and would ''permit concrete steps'' by those interested in peace in the region.

IT may not have been the most scientific way to conduct market research, but Susan Weissman measured the need for day-care services on the Upper West Side by counting boxes of paper diapers on supermarket shelves. ''I realized that there was a baby boom, and I knew, with the numbers of women working, that help was needed,'' she said. She was right. In March 1981, three months after renting space in a brownstone at 9 West 82d Street, equipping it and arranging for the requisite licensing by New York City, Mrs. Weissman, a psychiatric social worker and teacher, opened the Park Center for Preschoolers. Now the program, which operates from 8 A.M. to 6 P.M., weekdays yearround, has an enrollment of 60 children ranging in age First of two articles on private day care for children of working parents. from 6 months to 4 1/2 years and a waiting list of 40. A second center was opened last September at 28 East 35th Street. 'We have children signed up who have not yet been born,'' Mrs. Weissman said in a recent interview. ''Mothers are anxious to further their careers, but they cannot find care givers who can create the kind of stimulating environment in which they want their children cared for. They really need help.''

THERE aren't many beaches this side of the Baltic Sea where sunbathers can cool off at a boardwalk food stand with a chilled bowl of beet-red borscht and sour cream. In the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn, not only can bathers do that, at a takeout lunch stand called Gastronom Moscow, but they can also walk a block away to restaurants that serve such Russian specialties as Caucasian lamb casserole, grilled chicken with walnut sauce, Ukrainian dumplings, mutton soup, piroshki and, of course, caviar and iced vodka. Brighton Beach is one of the newest patches in New York City's colorful ethnic quilt, a home for an estimated 25,000 Russian immigrants, most of whom are Jewish and have arrived in the past five years. They have brought to this once-fading seaside neighborhood of older Jewish couples and younger Hispanic families their exotic alphabet, uplifting music and megacaloric foods. Once referred to as the Nice of New York because of its broad urban beach, the area's new nickname, ''Little Odessa,'' is now more appropriate. Many of the immigrants come from that Ukrainian city on the Black Sea, which they say in some ways resembles this seaside neighborhood. The feel of this corner of the city can best be experienced on a stroll along Brighton Beach Avenue, where most of the Russian-owned stores can be found.

President Reagan today appointed the 12 members of his National Bipartisan Commission on Central America and told it to report by Dec. 1 on how to build a national consensus behind a policy of dealing with ''threats'' to United States interests in the region. The commission, headed by former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, will be free to look into whatever elements of the region it chooses, including the dispute over covert United States military aid, according to Administration officials. The President announced the panel's members after using the occasion of Captive Nations Week to issue some of his most strongly worded warnings on what he says is at stake in the region and in the domestic political debate that it has stirred in this country. ''Help us warn the American people that, for the first time in memory, we face real dangers on our borders, that we must protect the safety and security of our people,'' Mr. Reagan said at a ceremony in which he enlarged on the occasion's traditional concern over Eastern Europe.

By establishing a National Bipartisan Commission on Central America, President Reagan acknowledged today that a dramatic step was needed to rescue his military policies in the region from rejection by the Congress and the public. A senior official familiar with Mr. Reagan's thinking said, ''On the present course, we are certain to lose.'' The apparent long-term need for a bigger military role, he said, is destined to be undermined sooner or later by the impatience and fears of the American people. Officials said that the commission's mandate had been left purposely vague. Its only clear mission is to come up with some idea of a strategy on what economic, political and social changes are needed to promote stability in Central America in the next few years.

Prime Minister Menachem Begin told President Reagan by telephone today that he was postponing his visit to Washington next week for personal reasons. ''The President expressed his understanding,'' the Prime Minister's office said in a statement, ''and agreed that they would think in terms of rescheduling the visit some time later this year.'' Officials in Jerusalem declined to give Mr. Begin's reasons for delaying the trip but said they were not connected with his health or with political matters. There was, however, widespread speculation that the cancellation was for a combination of health and political reasons.

It chops, it slices, it minces, it kneads - and between 1973 and 1981, it may have cost more than it should have. The Cuisinart food processor has for years been the subject of a price-fixing class action lawsuit on behalf of more than a million consumers who contend they were overcharged by $32 to $75 for their food processors. Now that case seems close to being settled. Late last month, Cuisinarts Inc., which denies any wrongdoing, sent out a notice informing owners of the food processor of a tentative agreement. Under the proposed settlement, all those who bought Cuisinarts between 1973 and 1981 would get a coupon entitling them to buy, for half the list price, another Cuisinart product worth up to $200. The coupons would be good for pots and pans, knives, or food processor accessories, but not for the food processors.

International Nicaragua expressed willingness to participate in international talks to achieve peace in Central America. The Government, marking the fourth anniversary of its revolution, also called for negotiations on other points previously raised by the United States, including arms supplies and military support for the leftist rebels in El Salvador. (Page A1, Column 6.) A consensus on Central America is sought by President Reagan. He appointed the 12 members of his National Bipartisan Commission on the region and instructed the panel to report by Dec. 1 on how to build a national consensus behind a policy of dealing with threats to the United States's interests there. (A1:4-5.)