What was going on when I was born?

The voluntary fingerprinting of New York schoolchildren in a cityrun program was approved yesterday by a City Council committee as a way to help the police locate and identify children who have been kidnapped. Five members of the Council's Education Committee voted for the measure; three opposed it. The full Council is expected to vote on the bill, supported by Mayor Koch, in a month.

''We will never surrender Central Park to a small group of hoodlums.'' - Parks Commissioner Henry J. Stern. (1:3.)

Over the last two years, the Danish and Swiss governments have exposed attempts by ostensible Soviet diplomats, actually K.G.B. officers, to influence or buy their way into groups trying to block deployment of new medium-range missiles in Western Europe. The cases are the best evidence offered by Western counterintelligence officers who believe that the Soviet espionage agency's highest priorities in Western Europe include attempts to exploit the disarmament movement. The counterintelligence experts are quick to acknowledge that there are hundreds of thousands of people who oppose nuclear weapons and are not dupes of the K.G.B., of the local Communist Party or of the Soviet Union in any way. Nowhere is the antinuclear movement regarded as a creation of Soviet policy. Rather, it is seen as an unusual target of opportunity for a full range of Soviet influence, extending beyond the K.G.B. A Reluctance to Prosecute But in trying to demonstrate the Soviet efforts convincingly, Western officials run into problems. One is a reluctance to prosecute citizens involved in the antinuclear movement - where the K.G.B. has been conspicuously present - because of risks of domestic political backlash.

Just three years after it ventured beyond toys to compete in the promising video game and home computer markets, Mattel Inc. said yesterday that its electronics division would lead the company to a pretax loss of ''significantly more than $100 million'' for the first half of 1983. Mattel will apparently be the third home electronics manufacturer to report second-quarter losses in excess of the worst predictions of industry analysts. On Thursday, Warner Communications reported that it had lost $283 million in the quarter because of poor performance in its Atari unit, and on Friday, Texas Instruments said it had lost $119 million in the same period. All three companies have been caught in a spiral of price cutting and sharply diminished sales in what a year ago was a booming home entertainment market, consisting mostly of video games and lowpriced computers.

By approving plans for a major increase in American military involvement in Central America, President Reagan appears to have narrowly defined the role of the commission he appointed last week to develop long-range policy options for the region. The increased activities include large-scale exercises beginning next month, preparation for a possible partial blockade of Nicaragua and plans for stepped-up covert operations against the Sandinista Government. Construction of a major American military base in Honduras is also planned. Administration officials acknowledge that these activities may deepen American involvement to such an extent that it would be difficult to revise policy even if the commission so recommends. But the officials, like the commission's chairman, former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, contend that most policy options will remain open when the panel completes its report, which will probably be early next year. Mr. Kissinger said today that he doubted anything ''irreversible'' would happen before then.

When the Bell & Howell Company announced recently that it had received a takeover inquiry for its DeVry Institute of Technology, a chain of technical schools, the news may have surprised those who still think of the company as a camera manufacturer. But Bell & Howell's vow to fight the offer, from the National Education Corporation of Newport Beach, Calif., underscored the fact that the company has taken a new direction. ''It's the most successful school of its type in the country,'' Donald N. Frey, Bell & Howell's 60-year-old chairman and chief executive, said of DeVry. ''We used to sell cameras. Now we're in the business of selling graduating students. We're good at it, and they know it.''

Governor Cuomo today vetoed a bill designed to phase in increases in electric rates over a 10-year period once the nuclear power plant at Shoreham, L.I., begins producing electricity. The legislation was proposed to protect customers in Nassau and Suffolk Counties from immediate sharp increases to pay for the Shoreham plant when, and if, the plant begins operating. The Long Island Lighting Company, which owns the plant, has already asked the State Public Service Commission for a 56.5 percent rate increase over three years to help pay the plant's cost. Legislation Called Flawed Mr. Cuomo said he supported the idea of a phase-in of electric rates, but he contended that the legislation was flawed and ''would probably make things worse.''

International Henry A. Kissinger conferred with President Reagan and said that the new Presidential commission on Central America was unlikely to complete its work before next February, two months later than the original deadline set by Mr. Reagan. The former Secretary of State, who heads the commission, said the 12 panel members would probably travel to Nicaragua and other Central American countries. (Page A1, Column 6.) American Army and Marine troops and Navy tactical air crews will take part in the military maneuvers set to begin in Honduras this week, according to a senior Pentagon official. The policy-making official said the aircraft carrier Ranger, with its seven escorting ships, would begin operating 100 miles off the Pacific coast of El Salvador within 48 hours. (A10:1.)

UNTIL recent times, whenever a horse, cow, pig, cat, dog or other farm animal or pet became seriously ill, a phone call to a veterinarian would usually bring him in short order. Who else would appear, one imagines, but one of those James Herriots of the world - the homey, rough-hewn, caring type who would have arisen at 3 A.M. and driven miles over rutted roads to save the sick animal. The way many animal doctors now practice their skills, however, is a far cry from the manner in which the folksy country vet performed his medical duties, according to more than a dozen animal doctors who were interviewed here this past week. The number of animals, especially pets, has been increasing in the United States, and their owners have shown a growing interest in their health and nurture. To provide the needed medical care, there are now some 42,000 veterinarians.

An article in Business Day last Wednesday about bank earnings mis- stated Bankers Trust's quarterly earnings. They excluded a pretax gain of $6 million and a nontaxable extraor- dinary gain of $4.3 million.

Merrill Lynch & Company, benefiting from a surge in trading commissions and underwriting fees, yesterday reported that second-quarter net income more than tripled, to $112 million, compared with the $36 million it earned in the similar period last year. Merrill Lynch's earnings, however, declined from the first quarter of 1983, when it reported net income of $126.9 million. On a per share basis, second-quarter earnings were up almost threefold, to $1.32 a share, from 45 cents, in 1982's second quarter. The results were adjusted for the 2-for-1 stock split that took effect on June 27.

Twenty-two years after his death, Ernest Hemingway is enjoying a comeback of the sort so often celebrated in his novels and short stories. Sales of his books are higher than ever, and his critical reputation, in the words of Linda Wagner, a Hemingway scholar at Michigan State University, ''is building toward a newer high.'' Every Hemingway title is still in print and sales of his books in the United States total almost 750,000 copies annually, up by about 25 percent in the last few years. Doing Well Worldwide Hemingway is probably the most widely translated author in the world, with his estate said to be earning $80,000 a year in foreign royalties. And he is the subject of a growing number of scholarly meetings, workshops, newsletters and reviews.