What was going on when I was born?

Mayor Koch, with Governor Cuomo at his side, said yesterday that New York City would get an ''acceptable'' share of money from a proposed $1.25 billion bond issue and that he would campaign for its passage this fall. On Thursday, the Legislature ratified an agreement on how the money from the proposed bond issue would be spent. The money would be used to reconstruct and expand roads, bridges and ports throughout the state. Mr. Koch, whose support the Governor's aides said was crucial, had insisted the city receive a ''fair share'' of the bond issue. At one point, he had said the 25 percent share offered the city by Mr. Cuomo was insufficient.

Members of the teamsters' union today overwhelmingly rejected a proposal by the union's president, Jackie Presser, that would have drastically reduced wages of union drivers rehired after April 1. The wide margin, 94,086 to 13,082, was a blow to Mr. Presser's prestige. It had been his first attempt to negotiate a nationwide contract since taking office in April.

The United States told the Soviet Union today that if Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko wanted to fly in a Soviet plane to attend the United Nations General Assembly session in New York next week, he would not be able to use an Aeroflot plane and he would have to land at a military airfield. John Hughes, the State Department spokesman, said Moscow was told of the conditions this morning. It was uncertain late today whether the Soviet Union would accept the American terms, which were laid down in response to the downing of the Korean Air Lines plane. Officials would not say when Mr. Gromyko planned to go to New York, but he usually goes at the end of the first week of the session, which would be late next week. President Reagan is to address the session Sept. 26.

The Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives has decided to cooperate with the Senate Republican leadership in the writing of a relatively small $12 billion tax package this fall. The press secretary for Representative Dan Rostenkowski, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said today that the Illinois Democrat got the go-ahead for the three-year package in a meeting Thursday with House Speaker Thomas P. O'Neill Jr. of Massachusetts and Jim Wright of Texas, the majority leader. Thus, both the House and the Senate are poised to write a tax bill this year whose revenue yield would fall far short of the $73 billion, three-year revenue goal Congress set for itself as a matter of sound fiscal policy in the 1984 Congressional budget. Several Minor Measures Included As it now shapes up, the bill would pull together several minor tax measures that House and the Senate tax writers, with the approval of the Reagan Administration, had expected to approve this year. It is this packaging of already accepted items and the small size of the package, staff aides said, that give it a good chance of enactment. The centerpiece of the package is expected to be a proposal already approved by the House Ways and Means Committee and backed by the Reagan Administration that would curtail sale- leaseback plans.

The White House warned today that attempts to require President Reagan to get Congressional approval for keeping United States marines in Lebanon would send an ''extremely dangerous'' signal to the Middle East and the Soviet Union. A senior White House official told reporters that the dangers would arise even though Congress appears disposed to authorize the presence of American troops in Lebanon. The official said ''any restrictions'' placed by Congress on the American commitment of troops to the multinational peacekeeping force in Lebanon ''are certainly read and understood beyond the shadow of a doubt by the Syrians and by the Soviets.'' He said requiring Congressional approval for the troops' presence would ''enable the Syrians and the Soviets to sit back and simply wait'' for a time when Congress might be less willing to extend its approval.

Helped by declining inflation and the strength of the American recovery, the economies of Western Europe are finally starting to pick up after the deepest recession since the 1930's, but only slightly. Indeed, the European upturn, retarded by high interest rates and lagging demand for exports everywhere except in the United States, is feeble and patchy so far. And economists and policy makers are sharply divided over whether even this weak upswing will last and what, if anything, can be done to strengthen it. In the 1972-73 recovery, Western European economies were growing by almost 6 percent when the first oil price shock punctured the boom. And during the next upswing, in 1976, Europe registered 4.6 percent annual growth.

Intelligence specialists and nuclear experts are increasingly concerned that Argentina is developing the ability to build nuclear weapons and may actually be planning to build a nuclear bomb. An intelligence report now circulating among key officials of the Reagan Administration contends that Argentine nuclear officials have a ''secret plan'' to divert a ton of uranium from under the noses of international inspectors and use the material to make nuclear fuel elements. Such fuel elements could presumably be irradiated, through further clandestine steps, to produce plutonium for an atomic weapon, or they could presumably be stockpiled and saved to build a bigger arsenal at some future time. Reports Are Doubted The intelligence report does not detail the possibilities.

The Lebanese Army, supported by five fighter-bombers, opened a broad offensive today against Syrian-backed Druse militiamen and Palestinian guerrillas trying to seize control of mountain ridges overlooking Beirut, Western and Lebanese military sources said. After a day of intense artillery duels, bombing raids by the Lebanese planes and reportedly even some hand-to- hand combat, the outcome of the battle for control of the ridge running from the towns of Suk al Gharb to Baisur appeared unclear. Lebanese troops hold Suk al Gharb. One Plane Shot Down The army said its units advanced ''in several places'' along the ridge and destroyed nine Soviet-made T-54 tanks operated by gunmen near Baisur. But the military said one of its British-made Hawker Hunter fighter-bombers was shot down by antiaircraft fire, apparently from the Soviet-made ZSU-23-4 antiaircraft guns that the Syrians have provided the Druse. The guns are very effective against slow, low-flying planes such as the antiquated Hawker Hunters.

The State Department refused today to permit one of the top two leaders of El Salvador's leftist coalition of political and guerrilla groups to enter the United States to talk to members of Congress and to address two forums on Central America. The Salvadoran political leader, Ruben Zamora, has been given permission to visit the United States a number of times, most recently in June. He met recently in Central America with Richard B. Stone, President Reagan's special envoy, to discuss the civil war in El Salvador. A State Department spokesman said that permission to enter the United States was denied in this case because during the June visit Mr. Zamora had ''noted'' that the five armed guerrilla components of the leftist coalition had taken full responsibility for the killing in San Salvador on May 25 of Lieut. Comdr. Albert A. Schaufelberger 3d, the deputy commander of United States military advisers in El Salvador. The spokesman also said that while in the United States, Mr. Zamora had said the guerrillas ''can't guarantee that this won't happen again.''

A lawyer who represents the family of Orlando Letelier, a Chilean diplomat who was killed in the United States, said this week that he intended to begin new efforts to prosecute Chilean officials implicated in the crime. But other lawyers and diplomats said they doubted substantial progress could be made in the case while the military remains in power in Chile. The Letelier family lawyer, Jaime Castillo, returned to Chile this month after two years in forced exile. He said in an interview that he planned to resume work on the case ''as soon as I get settled.''

Among the ideologically significant events to take place here was the announcement Thursday that the ruling party was preparing a printed guide to socialism and the name change of a fast-food restaurant from Comrade Kebab to Mr. Kebab. According to some restaurant employees, the repainting of the windows came about after some influential members of the ruling and avowedly socialist Zimbabwe African National Union thought that Comrade Kebab devalued an honorific that has been so widely used here that even Robert Keeley, the American Ambassador, has been introduced with it. In fact, the stylebook of the Zimbabwe newspapers, a Government-controlled group of papers, specifies that ''the honorific Comrade applies broadly to members of the Government and ruling party, senior servants and others,'' but adds, ''It is largely up to each individual to decide whether the term should apply to him or her.'' The definition of socialism as it is discussed and practiced here more than three years after independence is equally elastic.

President Antonio Ramalho Eanes of Portugal met with Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger today for talks on the American air base in the Azores and increased military aid to Portugal.