What was going on when I was born?

The declaration of bankruptcy by the Osborne Computer Corporation was the first spectacular failure in a shakeout in the personal computer industry that is bound to hit many others, according to analysts and executives. The same problems that hit the home computer industry - oversupply and severe price competition - are starting to affect the market for more expensive personal computers, which are used largely in business. By some estimates, there are more than 150 companies trying to compete on the periphery of a business that is increasingly dominated by the International Business Machines Corporation. In such a crowded environment, and one in which technology is changing so quickly, one can go from riches to rags almost overnight.

Senate Democrats moved tonight to force President Reagan to seek authorization under the War Powers Resolution to keep marines in Lebanon. The action came after the failure of repeated attempts earlier in the day to work out a compromise with the White House. Democrats, meeting in a party caucus, decided unanimously to take the issue to the Senate floor by introducing a resolution saying that the marines are involved in ''hostilities'' and that the President therefore has to seek Congressional approval under the War Powers Resolution to keep the marines in Lebanon. Issue of Congressional Approval The move, which obscured basic agreement between Congress and the White House on the need for the marines in Lebanon, put Congress and the White House a step closer to a constitutional confrontation over the war- making powers of the Presidency and Congress. At stake is the question whether the President, as Commander in Chief, needs Congressional approval when he sends American troops into combat or situations of potential hostilities.

''The mastery of English is the first and most essential goal of education.

The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Bob Dole of Kansas, has decided to move ahead on a token tax increase that would raise about $12 billion over three years, Congressional staff members said tonight. Mr. Dole's plan provides the first indication since Congress returned from its summer recess of how it will respond to the directives of the budget resolution for fiscal year 1984 that it approved in June. The $12 billion figure falls far short of the $73 billion in tax increases called for in the Congressional budget resolution. But it matches the three- year total of spending reductions that were also approved in the resolution, a recent objective of Mr. Dole.

Police Commissioner Robert J. McGuire has agreed to increase the staff of the Civilian Complaint Review Board by almost 25 percent to reduce a backlog of cases, the board's executive director said yesterday. The director, Charles J. Adams, said his formal request for additional staff members was made to Mr. McGuire last month and was approved last week. In testimony prepared for Monday's Congressional hearing on charges of police brutality, Mr. McGuire had planned to announce the increased staff, which will cost an estimated $350,000 a year in salaries, according to Alice T. McGillion, the deputy commissioner for public information. Mr. McGuire's testimony was scrapped, however, because Mayor Koch said that the site of the hearing was inappropriate and that no city official would testify.

Enormous tree trunks, some as large as seven feet in diameter, are lying on the ground in Crotona Park in the Bronx. Broken branches dangle precariously from the tops of trees. The entire forestry staff of the Parks Department in the Bronx has been working full time for almost two months trying to clean up the debris caused by gale-force winds that swept through the city on July 21 and uprooted more than 300 trees in the Bronx in a 10-minute period. On that evening, winds of more than 50 miles per hour whipped through the University Heights and Tremont sections of the Bronx and into the park, which alone lost more than 200 trees.

Friday HOUND AND HORN AND ART One of New York city's myriad of specialized museums is the Dog Museum of America, where an exhibition titled ''Hound and Horn'' can now be seen. There are 50 English and American paintings, sculptures and decorative objects related to what the museum calls ''the time-honored sport of fox hunting.'' There are hunt costumes, hunt artifacts and objects decorated with hunting motifs The artists represented include John Nost Sartorius, Benjamin Marshall, Richard Barrett Davis and Sir Alfred Munnings. The museum is in the American Kennel Club Foundation, 51 Madison Avenue, at 26th Street, on the main floor of the New York Life Insurance building. A $2 donation is suggested. The museum is open weekdays 10 A.M. to 4 P.M. Information: 696-8350.

Americans are displaying a mood of frustration and contradiction over the Soviet downing of the South Korean airliner on Sept. 1, a New York Times/ CBS News Poll shows. The survey indicates that people doubt the full story is being told, but that they generally approve of President Reagan's handling of the matter even though they do not find it tough enough. Sixty-one percent said they felt the United States Government was ''holding back information that people ought to know,'' a percentage only slightly greater than the 56 percent who said Mr. Reagan was not tough enough. Yet 55 percent said they approved of his approach overall, though among them nearly half wanted tougher action.

The State Legislature ratified a plan tonight for spending the money from a proposed $1.25 billion bond issue to rebuild and expand highways, roads and bridges. The agreement, which listed the amount that each region of the state would receive, was passed by the Senate, 54 to 4. The Assembly approved it, 137 to 6. The bond issue requires voter approval in November.

TV-Cable Week, the ambitious television-listings venture that Time Inc. began only five months ago, will cease publication with the Sept. 25 issue, Time announced yesterday. ''It is now clear that our business plans for the magazine will not work,'' J. Richard Munro, the company's chief executive, and Henry Grunwald, editor in chief, said in a joint statement. The company had ''examined a number of alternatives to a weekly cable magazine,'' they added, ''but none of them is economically feasible for Time Inc.'' According to Time management and competitors, TV-Cable Week's main stumbling block was acceptance by cable operators, which distributed the fledgling magazine. With cable operators trying to persuade subscribers to buy additional pay services, a magazine priced at $2.95 a month - far higher than rival publications - had obvious drawbacks. ''I guess we misjudged the intensity of interest among readers, and the cable operators had their own agenda,'' said Kelso Sutton, group vice president-magazines.

International Senate Democrats moved to force President Reagan to seek authorization under the War Powers Resolution to enable marines to remain in Lebanon after repeated attempts to reach a compromise with the White House broke down. The Democrats, meeting in a party caucus, agreed unanimously to take the issue to the Senate floor. (Page A1, Column 6.) Menachem Begin formally resigned, setting in motion the process of selecting a new Israeli Prime Minister and Government. The process could take weeks. (A6:4-6.)

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching today called for significant changes in American high schools, beginning with tightened curriculums and the improvement of salaries and working conditions for teachers. It also called the ability to write clearly ''the most important and most neglected skill in school.'' ''The time for renewing American education has arrived,'' Ernest L. Boyer, the former United States Commissioner of Education, who is president of the foundation, said at a news conference. ''We believe that today America has the best opportunity it will have in this century to improve the schools.''