What was going on when I was born?

At 2 A.M. Sunday, the Champs-Elysees was one long black limousine inching its way from the Arc de Triomphe to the Place de la Concorde. Groups of young men in leather jackets stood on street corners. Young women in tight skirts looked for taxis. Romantic couples walked head to shoulder. It did not matter that it was raining or that the leaves on the sidewalk were being blown into little tornadoes. Paris was awake. It was going to have a good time. And nothing - not the weather, the Government, the rate of exchange, the taxes, and certainly not the triumph of the Japanese at the current spring fashion shows - was going to stop it. At La Piscine, the newest club in town, young men with Jean Marais haircuts (shaved in back and long on top) were standing eight deep waiting to get in. They wore long black coats, T-shirts, suspenders and sailor caps. Some were tattooed. The young women had crew cuts or wore fabric wrapped around their hair. Everyone wore black boots or white sneakers. Inside, it was all white tiles and different levels. The dance floor jumped. The music was British. From a balcony, Patrick Dupont, the young ballet dancer with the Paris Opera, who is the toast of Paris, surveyed the sea of heads.

THE signs and sights and smells of the ''new'' Flushing poke out unexpectedly from among the small haberdashers, hardware and dry-goods stores and gift shops. Bharat, Ku Hwa, Mi-Mi, Shamiana, Sam Bok, Se-Ho Trading Company read the names of the food shops along Main, Union and Prince Streets and on the smaller side streets that cut through them. The word ''Seoul'' has been carefully lettered in front of the name of the Little Angels Department Store on Main Street, bestowing upon it a new Asian identity like that of many Flushing stores. More and more, the shopkeepers are Asian in what was once one of many suburblike, homogeneously white commercial centers in the city's ''borough of homes.'' For them, and for many non- Asians as well, this area in Queens has become an exciting and exotic gastronomic mecca. You can smell the paprika, fennel, sesame oil and mango chutney, and the pungency of the spicy, hot Korean salad called kimchee brings water to the eyes. The fruit and vegetable stands have stacks of lotus and taro roots, bok choy and choy sum, dried black mushrooms and cuttlefish alongside the fresh fruits and vegetables, and in the Sam Bok market on Main Street, Hono Pak will sell you five-feet-long sheets of dried seaweed and bottles of Mackoly, one brand of natural Korean rice wine.

The General Motors Corporation, the nation's largest manufacturer of automobiles, agreed today to pay $42.5 million to settle a 10-year-old complaint charging employment discrimination against blacks, women and Hispanic people. It was described by Federal officials as the largest out-of-court settlement of an employment discrimination case. The agreement sets numerical goals for the hiring, training and promoting of women and members of minority groups. It also includes an unusual provision under which the company plans to give $15 million in endowments and scholarships to colleges and technical schools, primarily to assist G.M. employees and members of their families. Members of the ''affected class,'' the blacks, women and Hispanic employees, are to be given preference in the distribution of the education assistance funds.

Speaker Thomas P. O'Neill Jr., who backed President Reagan's use of American Marines in Lebanon, said today that he would oppose the Administration's continuing aid to Nicaraguan rebels in a crucial vote scheduled for the House of Representatives on Thursday. ''I believe that the United States should not be engaged militarily in trying to overthrow other governments,'' Mr. O'Neill said. ''I believe there is a sharp difference between what the Administration is doing in Lebanon and what it is trying to do in Nicaragua. In Lebanon, it is supporting a government. In Nicaragua, it is trying to overthrow one.''

Mayor Koch and the Mayor of Managua, Nicaragua, held a spirited but friendly 15-minute debate today, with each accusing the other's Government of causing the turmoil in Central America. The exchange with the Nicaraguan Mayor, Samuel Santos Lopez, took place in a hotel that was the site of a conference of mayors from the Western Hemisphere sponsored by the city of San Juan. Mr. Koch, who had earlier delivered a luncheon address on problems facing New York City, compared the Nicaraguan Government with that of the Soviet Union. He said both encouraged political violence in neighboring countries, then used the strife as a pretext for stifling internal debate through press censorship.

The Going Out Guide on Oct. 12 misidentified the producing director of the Hudson Guild Theater. He is David Kerry Heefner.

Scientists said yesterday that they had succeeded in developing vaccines that protected rabbits against hepatitis and mice against a type of herpes. Moreover, the researchers are confident that comparable vaccines will be developed for humans as well. And they are hopeful that the research will lead to production of the first successful vaccine against the type of herpes virus that infects the genitals, estimated to afflict nine million Americans. It is considered a strong possibility, too, that new vaccines will result in protection for humans not only against hepatitis but also against several other diseases. But scientists said that it would be at least three years before human tests could begin.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization warns that 22 African countries are facing catastrophic food shortages. The agency is convening a 57-nation conference here on Wednesday to deal with the crisis. Edouard Saouma, director general of the organization, said he would ask the participants for increased food aid for the 22 African lands because ''the situation is dangerous in Africa.'' The crisis, he said in an interview, is caused not only by weather but also by such human factors as extreme population growth, nomadic farming, the weakness of many administrative systems and a scarcity of trained people and research services. Comparing the present situation with the famine of 1973-74, which took the lives of hundreds of thousands and left many more with lasting damage from malnutrition, Mr. Saouma said the current crisis was threatening a much wider area.

Sniper attacks on American marines in Beirut over the last four days have underscored how exposed they and the Beirut International Airport are to hostile fire. Two marines were killed by the sniper fire. Near the airport early yesterday there was a shootout between Lebanese Government forces and unidentified gunmen in which four people were reported killed. (Page A1, Columns 2-3.) The Marines may be taking on an additional security role tomorrow. The Lebanese Government announced that the long-delayed national reconciliation conference of Christian and Moslem leaders would open then at the Beirut International Airport. But whether the meeting will take place on schedule, if at all, remained in doubt. No sooner had the Beirut radio announced that the airport had been chosen as the conference site than it was rejected by an aide to the Druse leader. (A7:1.)

The Federal Communications Commission today delayed for three months, until April 3, a charge of $2 a month that was to be added to every residential phone bill. The F.C.C. also said it was postponing a variety of other rate changes that were to have gone into effect on Jan. 1, the date of the formal breakup of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. The agency said it took the action because it needed more time to study the thousands of pages of filings in connection with the rate changes. It denied that it was acting because of wide public criticism of the monthly residential charge, criticism that has led to a bill in Congress aimed at postponing the fee or changing it.

Should New York spend more on its transportation system? And is borrowing the best way to do it? Governor Cuomo, answering both questions with an emphatic yes, has proposed a $1.25 billion ''Rebuild New York'' bond issue. On Nov. 8 the state's voters will let their views be known. The bonds, if approved, would be paid off over 30 years, including $1 billion or more in interest. The money would go to replace bridges, resurface and widen roads, complete long-planned highways and service roads, modernize rail freight facilities, purchase buses and improve airports.

ONE of the great pleasures of a visit to Spain is the opportunity to while away a few hours on a long afternoon or evening at a tapas bar. In that country, such bars are found everywhere, offering small snacks, on the order of appetizers or hors d'oeuvres, that are eaten with an aperitif. Tapas can be made from a variety of ingredients; it really depends on the specialty of a particular region. Along the waterfront in Barcelona, for instance, one will find tapas of fresh squid and mussels, of sardines and a variety of cheeses. ''Tapa,'' explained Felipe Rojas-Lombardi, ''is the Spanish word for a lid or cover. The story I've heard is that many years ago in the taverns of Spain there were sometimes hordes of flies that buzzed around the open- windowed bars. To prevent the flies from falling into a wine glass, it was customary to