What was going on when I was born?

This city is beginning to swing again, and fashion is contributing to the new beat. Ken Williams, director of Turnbull & Asser, the men's clothing store here, attributes the liveliness to ''all the Americans after the cheap pound.'' ''It's the British sense of individuality, just short of eccentricity,'' said Geraldine Stutz, president of Henri Bendel. ''The world of fashion is ready for it.''

Text of Reagan statement, page A7. WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 - President Reagan signed legislation today authorizing American marines to remain in Lebanon for 18 more months, but he insisted obliquely that he already had the authority to keep the Marines there without Congressional approval. Mr. Reagan's approval of the legislation came as Administration officials said they would soon undertake the first high-level review in six months of overall Middle East policies. The review is to coincide with the return to Washington today of Robert C. McFarlane, the special Middle East envoy.

Companies Federal bank regulators lent $100 million to First National of Midland, Tex., to keep it from failing before they can arrange a rescue by a stronger bank. The loan to the big bank, which has been hurt by losses on loans to energy companies, was one of the largest ever by the F.D.I.C. (Page A1.) Ted Turner said he has bought The Satellite News Channels, the only challenger to his Cable News Network, from ABC and Westinghouse for $25 million. In two weeks, the Atlanta entrepreneur will shut down the rival operation, which has lost more than $40 million. Analysts saw the deal as a triumph for Mr. Turner. (D1.)

An article in Business Day Friday about the Esmark Corporation misidentified a label under which its cosmetics are sold. The label is Jhirmack.

Perhaps the most striking sign of the changes that are reshaping the Japanese pharmaceutical industry came in August when Merck & Company bought a controlling interest in the Banyu Pharmaceutical Company, a major drug maker in Tokyo. Merck's $314 million purchase is being hailed here as a sign of the growing importance of the lucrative Japanese drug market to foreign companies, and also as an indication of a new receptivity in Government and business circles to sizable acquisitions by overseas concerns. Through its control of prices, the Government is forcing a consolidation among the roughly 400 domestic producers that supply the $12 billion- a-year market in Japan for prescription drugs. In the last year, the Government has stiffened its system of making annual price reductions on old drugs, while speeding the approval of new and relatively high- priced drugs. The purpose is to reward innovative companies and make the country's fragmented industry internationally competitive.

In the last two years, United States satellite signals carrying entertainment and news programs intended for cable television viewers in this country have been intercepted by a growing number of television stations throughout the Caribbean and Central America and broadcast without authorization. State Department officials and spokesmen for the United States film industry call the practice ''piracy'' and say it is likely to spread to other continents in the next three years as nations in Europe, Asia and South America launch satellites for the broadcast of cable television programs. American cable networks normally use satellites to distribute their programs across the United States. The theft of satellite transmissions, the film industry spokesmen say, threatens to damage seriously the overseas markets for American films, which now earn more than $1.25 billion a year, or 30 percent of the revenues of United States movie makers. Dependence on Foreign Films Such losses, film industry spokesman say, could have a critical impact on film companies that often depend on foreign sales to make their motion pictures profitable.

Argentina's 11-bank advisory group has advised that nation's other bank lenders that a $500 million disbursement from a $1.5 billion medium- term commercial bank loan to the country will be further delayed, banking officials said yesterday. The officials added that the payment, which has been postponed twice, most recently until next Monday, might still be made before national elections are held on Oct. 30. Agreement on a new payment date could come today, when the advisory group is scheduled to hold a third day of meetings. Interest Payments at Issue Bankers said the country's failure to remain current on outstanding interest payments, which they said have been made on only a sporadic basis since the middle of June, was the major reason for the latest postponement. Argentina's central bank has insisted that it is current on payments through the end of last month.

It was, for six decades, a very private house, situated at the end of a long driveway and surrounded by 100 acres of land. No one in the family ever counted the number of rooms but, in addition to a generously proportioned drawing room, dining room, loggia and library, there was ample space for master bedrooms, accommodation for three children, guest quarters, a schoolroom, night and day nurseries, a tutor's room, walls of closets and servants' quarters. It was the setting for a way of life enjoyed by only a few even earlier in the century, and increasingly rare as the years went by. The white cement block residence, as uncommon as the lives of its owners, was built as a result of a young bride's daydream as she floated in a houseboat down the Yangtze River during her honeymoon. The girl's name was Alexandra Emery, and when she married Benjamin Moore, a lawyer, in 1920, her wedding trip to China was the first of many adventurous trips for the couple. But it was there that she spotted a black and white farmhouse framed by water that became the inspiration of what was to be her home until her death last spring at the age of 89.

International American marines are authorized to remain in Lebanon for 18 more months under a new law. In signing the measure, President Reagan insisted obliquely that he already had the authority to keep the Marines in Beirut even without Congressional approval. Meanwhile, Administration officials said they would soon undertake the first high-level review of overall Middle East policies in six months. (Page A1, Column 6.) Lebanon's primary problem, according to President Amin Gemayel, is to devise ways to get the foreign troops out of the country. In a 90-minute interview, the Lebanese leader said with some irritation and doubt that the national reconciliation conference, which he has called at Washington's urging, was ''a camouflage, a distraction.'' (A1:5.)

On April 24, 1981, Secretary of Labor Raymond J. Donovan led a raid on a garment factory at 125 Canal Street in Chinatown. A statement issued afterward by the Department of Labor described the event this way: ''The drunk on the trash-strewn sidewalk barely lifted his head as the van pulled in front of the loft building in Manhattan's Chinatown. ''Crouched inside the van, Secretary of Labor Raymond J. Donovan and a team of his wage and hour compliance officers were about to investigate sweatshop working conditions in the garment factories above. ''The Donovan compliance officers and the Chinese-speaking interpreter bypassed the broken elevator and raced up the stairs. Then they fanned out on two separate floors of the building.

Three hospitals in New York State have been cited as ''deficient'' for failing to report doctors charged with incompetence or drug impairment, the State Department of Health said yesterday. A fourth hospital was cited for failing to examine the credentials of a new doctor who was later charged with drug addiction, the department said. The citations, issued by Dr. David Axelrod, the State Commissioner of Health, were believed to be the first disciplinary action taken by the state against hospitals that failed to comply with a state regulation requiring them to report cases of impairment, incompetence or misconduct involving doctors to the appropriate state health authorities. No Decision Yet on Fines Frances Tarleton, a Health Department spokesman, said the agency had not decided whether to fine any of the four hospitals.

The Manville Corporation, the big forest-products company that sought protection from its creditors 14 months ago, said yesterday that it would file its reorganization plan on Monday. Although details of the plan were not disclosed, sources said that it would take the same basic form as the tentative proposal the company floated last May - and that it will face many of the same objections. Basically, the plan provides for Manville, formerly the world's largest asbestos producer, to be split into two entities. The first, which those involved in the negotiations call M-One, would handle and fund the thousands of asbestos-related claims that prompted the company to seek the protection of the United States Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.