What was going on when I was born?

Governor Cuomo and the majority leader of the State Senate, Warren M. Anderson, today resolved a dispute over appointments to the State Commission of Investigation. Mr. Anderson, a Republican from Binghamton, had threatened to block confirmation of all future appointments by Governor Cuomo unless a former State Senator, who is a Republican, was reappointed to the commission. Under the accord, the commission will be expanded from four members to six to give Mr. Anderson a chance to reappoint Bernard C. Smith, the former Senator who is also a former Suffolk County District Attorney. Senate Session Canceled In exchange, Mr. Anderson canceled a Senate session he had called for Monday to attempt to rescind the confirmatons of as many as 29 of Mr. Cuomo's appointees.

The Chrysler Corporation reported today that it earned $310.3 million, or $2.41 a share, in the second quarter, nearly half of it the result of tax credits carried forward from the auto maker's years of huge losses. The quarterly profit, Chrysler's largest ever, compared with net income of $106.9 million, or $1.34 a share, in last year's second quarter. The earnings report was another step in the company's remarkable recovery from near bankruptcy less than three years ago. Last week, Lee A. Iacocca, Chrysler's chairman, announced that the company would repay this year the remaining $800 million of the $1.2 billion in federally guaranteed loans that enabled the company to avert bankruptcy.

THE season of the flea market is upon us, that succession of weekends in the summer when collectors, the merely curious and the compulsive pore through piles of collectibles in search of serendipitous discoveries at outdoor markets in parking lots, at race tracks, on town greens and in sports stadiums. This year, by all accounts, they will be looking for relics of the steamship era of the 1920's, when trans-Atlantic crossings were social and historical events. In other years, it was memorabilia of Shirley Temple, particularly a blue cereal dish bearing her picture; old postcards and theatrical posters, duck decoys, 1940's furniture, glass paperweights and copies of Hummel figures made in Japan. For many, a flea market is a place to indulge in not very serious interests, a reasonable excuse for a country outing. For others, however, such as antiques and collectible dealers, the flea market is a place to do business.

A SUMMER'S night of theater - especially while away on a holiday or as part of a quick escape from the city - is the essence of leisure. It is a fling in the midst of a lark, a vacation within a vacation. It is a walk in the woods before the curtain rises, a cool evening breeze at intermission, a sky full of stars at play's end. To catch these double pleasures, consider the many plays now being offered at theaters surrounding the metropolitan area. In the Berkshire Mountains, there is ''Harvey,'' the classic comedy of man and rabbit. In the woods of Westport, Conn., a young playwright will open her first musical. A musical by Irving Berlin will be presented on the banks of the Connecticut River, and Chekhov will be performed near the spas of Saratoga Springs, N.Y. As always, there are revivals galore. At the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Conn., where many a Broadway hit began, Irving Berlin's 1949 Broadway show ''Miss Liberty'' will be staged. Fans of Chekhov have at least two options: ''Ivanov'' at the Williamstown Theater in Massachusetts and ''The Seagull'' at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs. Mummenschanz, the maskand-mime troupe, will also revive its Broadway production in Saratoga Springs next week.

The Government reported today that the nation's economy grew at a strong 8.7 percent annual rate in the second quarter. The growth was fueled by an unexpected burst in consumer spending and a slowdown in the rate at which businesses are using up their inventories. The growth in the gross national product, like many less comprehensive reports lately, showed the economy was moving at close to the heady momentum of the early stages of most recoveries from recessions. The 8.7 percent rate, covering the period from April through June, was adjusted for inflation.

Friday TELLING STORIES ON L.I. Stories - Appalachian tales, fantasy, folklore, ghost stories and tall tales - will be told at the Summer Storytelling Festival in Heckscher Park, at Prime Avenue and Route 25A, east of the village of Huntington, L.I. Chairs, blankets or cushions are recommended. Admission: $2.50, children. $2. The yarns will be spun tonight, starting at 7:30, by David Holt, by the Folktellers, two cousins from the Appalachian Mountains, by Jay O'Callahan from Massachusetts and by Heather Forrest of Long Island. In case of rain, everyone scoots into the Huntington High School, at Oakwood and McKay Roads. The program will be repeated tomorrow at Sayville Junior High School on Johnson Avenue in Sayville. Information: (516) 271-8423.

With a few puffs on his cigar, Paul A. Volcker, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, did what many a summer tennis player would like to do - change the out-of-bounds lines in the middle of the game. Testifying before the House Banking Committee on Wednesday, Mr. Volcker indicated that the Federal Reserve had raised its limit on money supply growth for the rest of the year. Starting from a second-quarter base, the Fed now targets growth of the nation's basic money supply at 5 percent to 9 percent, instead of 4 percent to 8 percent measured from the fourth quarter of 1982. By the end of this year, the change means that the money supply can be about $20 billion greater than under the old target.

The Brooks Brothers crowd at the corner of Liberty and West Streets every evening is familiar. What is strange is the direction the young professionals take home from another working day in lower Manhattan. They head west, to what used to be a wind-swept, 92-acre sandlot north of the Battery that until a decade ago was part of the Hudson River. West, across the mouth of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, under the base of what will become a skyscraper next year, and over a dusty new street called South End Avenue. West, into a hushed realm of silver lindens and Norway maples, cast-iron lampposts and a Canadian black granite seawall on a new esplanade at the river's edge.

Prodded by the Reagan Administration, the House began debate today on the $8.4 billion increase in the United States contribution to the International Monetary Fund. But both Democrats and Republicans said it would take a stonger push by the President for the bill to be approved, and a vote was not in sight. Administration officials and the Republican and Democratic leadership in the House all agreed that they were far short of the needed votes. There was speculation that a vote might not occur until after Labor Day.

''Those who poison the land must pay for its cure.'' - Justice Stewart G. Pollock of the New Jersey Supreme Court. (A1:1.)

International Plans for major naval maneuvers off Central America were defended by President Reagan at a brief news conference. He said it would be ''extremely difficult'' to bring stability to the region as long as the Sandinista Government remained in control of Nicaragua. Mr. Reagan said he ''would hope'' there would be no need to impose a naval blockade of Nicaragua to stabilize Central America. (Page A1, Column 6.) The formal lifting of martial law was announced by Poland's Government. But the end of 19 months of military rule is expected to make little difference in the lives of Poles because many of the controls have been institutionalized into the regular legal code and Parliament passed a series of special regulations to insure the authorities a firm grip on political and economic life. (A1:3-4.)

The Polish Government announced today the longawaited, formal lifting of martial law. But the end of 19 months of military rule is expected to make little difference in everyday life. Many of the controls under martial law, imposed to break the independent trade union Solidarity, have been institutionalized in the legal code. And today, Parliament enacted a series of temporary regulations to insure a continued tight grip on political and economic life. Today Is a National Holiday The significance of the announcement that martial law will end on Friday, the anniversary of the establishment of Communist rule in 1944, lay in the hope of Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski's Government that Western nations would now be encouraged to ease sanctions squeezing the already weakened economy. (President Reagan said at a news conference that he would look for ''deeds, not words'' before deciding whether to ease sanctions. Page A6.)