What was going on when I was born?

Increasing hopes of lower interest rates sent the Dow Jones industrial average up 15.25 points yesterday, to a closing record of 1,249.19, in accelerated trading. Powering the advance was heavy buying by pension and insurance funds in the recently strong blue-chip, transportation and technology issues. In the last three sessions, the key indicator has soared 34 points. Turnover on the New York Stock Exchange climbed to 103.1 million shares from 85.6 million the day before. The volume was the largest since 114 million shares changed hands on Sept. 12.

THOUGH much is suspected, relatively little is known about the health effects of peppery foods. In general, hot, spicy foods are stimulants. They stimulate the circulation and raise body temperature. If you are living in a hot climate, the increase in body temperature can make you feel cooler by diminishing the difference between you and the surrounding air and by inducing sweating, which cools the body when the perspiration evaporates. Peppery foods are also believed to stimulate the appetite by setting off the flow of saliva and gastric juices, a nutritionally important effect for people in tropical areas where the oppressive heat acts as an appetite suppressant. And, anecdotally at least, they act as an overall stimulant, producing a titillating, awakening effect and increasing the acuity of the senses.

The French Government today announced a major restructuring of the country's recently nationalized electronics and telecommunications industry in an effort to stem heavy losses, increase exports and keep France in the forefront of modern technology. Under an agreement between France's two leading electrical companies, Compagnie Generale d'Electricite and Thomson-Brandt, they will exchange assets so that C.G.E. becomes France's premier telecommunications manufacturer, while Thomson-Brandt concentrates on consumer electronics and military equipment. The aim is to strengthen the competitiveness of the French electronics and telecommunications industry at a time when major international changes are under way in that sector. The American Telephone and Telegraph Company has recently linked up with Philips of the Netherlands, for example, while Honeywell Inc. has made an agreement for cooperation with Ericsson, the Swedish electronics concern.

Tonight the New York Stock Exchange is throwing a gala coming out party, and it is the talk of Wall Street. For on Friday, the Big Board will plunge into the options business, one they have neglected for 10 years. And the party is the curtain raiser in an elaborate, $4 million celebration of, and promotion for, the main event, the actual start of trading of the New York Stock Exchange index option. The Big Board will be trading an option on its composite index, which tracks all the 1,500 common shares listed on the exchange. The new option thus gives investors the right to participate in the movement of that index. Despite all the hoopla involved in the introduction of the option, many traders have developed a wait-and-see attitude.

Congressional leaders from both parties and President Reagan agreed today on a compromise resolution that would authorize the continued deployment of American marines in Lebanon for an additional 18 months under the War Powers Resolution. Many lawmakers expressed serious reservations about the compromise and voiced fears that before the 18- month period expired American troops could be drawn deeper into the fighting in Lebanon. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, the Democratic leader in the Senate, said that he had not ''signed on'' to the compromise and that a majority of Senate Democrats thought the 18-month deadline was too long. But the predominant feeling on Capitol Hill today was that the compromise resolution would be approved quickly, because most lawmakers feel there is no practical alternative to continuing the troops' mission in Lebanon. 'No Good Solution' ''There is no good solution,'' a senior Democrat in the House said. ''Staying in is bad, but leaving is worse.''

An article Monday about Jews in Egypt gave an incorrect birthplace for the Biblical prophet Jeremiah. According to citations from the Old Testament he was born in a village near Jerusalem.

The State University of New York Press has discontinued a textbook on the Middle East, and a pro-Arab group is taking the credit. The university, however, says the decision was made for financial reasons. And a proIsrael group, which at first questioned the motives of the university press, now says it accepts the publisher's explanation but wants the book continued. The book, ''The United States and the Middle East,'' by Philip L. Groisser, printed two years ago, has been used in high schools and colleges.

Automatic rifles were piled in an untidy stack in a corner of the Druse militia command post here today as three young men huddled over a radio, directing efforts to capture the nearby town of Suk al Gharb from Lebanese Army soldiers. They were also talking about what it was like to be fired at by the United States Navy. It was into this area that two American warships off Beirut fired hundreds of shells Monday. The attack was aimed at stopping the soldiers in this room, and their comrades on the front about half a mile away, from winning a military victory that might topple the Government of President Amin Gemayel.

''In my district, there is not a sense we should be involved there.

A caption Friday in the Metropolitan Report incorrectly identified one New York assemblyman in a group of legislators. He was Kemp Hannon.

Police Commissioner Robert J. McGuire said yesterday that the same weapon that was used to kill a woman and wound a Yeshiva University High School student Sunday was used in several attacks near the school last June. ''We can speculate that the shootings were anti-Semitic,'' Mr. McGuire said, ''that they were done by people who had problems with Yeshiva students, by gangs in the area or by a disgruntled employee.'' A spokesman for Yeshiva University, Samuel Hartstein, said: ''We have to accept that these are attacks by an anti-Semitic gang or individual that has his mind set on attacks on Jewish students. We have played out every scenario we can think of. We have to support that scenario for want of anything else.''

For a second day, two American warships bombarded anti-Government artillery and missile batteries in mountains southeast of Beirut today. An American spokesman called it ''defensive fire.'' Maj. Robert Jordan, the United States Marine spokesman, said the naval barrage started after the residence of the United States Ambassador, Robert C. Dillon, in suburban Yarze in the wooded hills overlooking Beirut was exposed to an attack from a multiple rocket launcher. The residence was not hit, Major Jordan said, but several fires were started in the surrounding woods, where the presidential palace is also situated. Reporters counted at least 40 rounds fired in roughly a 20-minute period by the two ships, the cruiser Virginia and the destroyer John Rodgers. Afterward, the shelling from the mountains on Beirut appeared to subside. On Monday, according to Western military sources, the two ships fired 368 rounds.