What was going on when I was born?

Under this heading, The Times amplifies articles or rectifies what the editors consider significant lapses of fairness, balance or perspective. Corrections, also on this page, continue to deal with factual errors.

''That corn is going to hell when it ought to be going to West Texas.'' - Jim Hightower, Texas Agriculture Commissioner, on requests that the Federal Government release stored grain for use in areas devastated by drought. (A14:1.)

One recent morning while joggers passed by on the shore-front pavement and rush-hour traffic began to back up, a fully dressed man walked purposefully onto the beach in Rio's wealthy Leblon neighborhood. He placed a small Bible at the water's edge, dove into the breakers and swam out to sea until he disappeared. No note was left behind to explain what had led to such an act of desperation; perhaps the victim reasoned that none was needed. Hopelessness, a sentiment considered out of character or even subversive in Brazil until a short time ago, now seems to be the national mood. ''In the 60 years in which I have been working in Brazil, this is the first time that I find my feelings dominated by pessimism,'' wrote Adolpho Bloch in Manchete, a popular magazine of which he is the founder and director. A Russian emigrant, Mr. Bloch has built one of Latin America's largest communications empires producing publications known for their brimming doses of boosterism for his adopted country.

Brian Friel's ''Faith Healer'' won acclaim recently in Dublin and London, but it didn't fare well in a 1979 Broadway production that starred James Mason. Mr. Friel now feels the play should never have been on Broadway because it needs an intimate site. Intimacy is unmistakable at the 65-seat Vineyard Theater, 309 East 26th Street, where previews of ''Faith Healer'' start tonight at 8. J. T. Walsh, whose Broadway credits include ''Rose'' with Glenda Jackson and ''Richard III'' with Al Pacino, plays the title character, who seems to have lost his touch. Also in the cast are Kathleen Chalfant and Martin Shakar, who was John Travolta's brother in ''Saturday Night Fever.'' Tickets are $8. For reservations call 683-0696. RARE BOOKS TO BUY Specialists in books about gardening, New York, the Wizard of Oz and English royalty are among the more than 50 American and British dealers to be represented at the fourth annual Trinity-Westside Antiquarian Book Fair at the Trinity School, 101 West 91st Street, between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues. Generalists will be there, too, with diverse old, rare and collectible printed matter. Tickets for a wine-and-cheese preview tonight, 6 to 9, cost $7.50 and are good for all three days. Tickets for Saturday, 11 A.M. to 7 P.M., are $5 and are good for Sunday as well. Tickets for Sunday alone, noon to 5 P.M., are $3. RARE PAINTINGS TO VIEW

The Senate voted today to block until at least April 15 President Reagan's new system of lifelong censorship for more than 100,000 officials handling highly sensitive information. The 56-to-34 vote in the Republican- controlled chamber was considered a mild rebuff to the Administration and signaled rising concern in Congress about Mr. Reagan's directive of March 11 to protect national security secrets by expanded use of censorship and polygraph testing of officials. The measure approved today, which supporters said would probably be adopted by the House as well, would apparently force the Administration to stop putting into effect its new requirement that officials of the Defense, State, Justice and other departments who handle highly classified ''sensitive compartmented information'' sign agreements consenting to ''prepublication review'' by Government censors of their writing for the rest of their lives. Distribution Has Begun The Administration has already begun distributing such agreements to be signed, and some of the more than 100,000 employees with access to ''sensitive compartmented information'' may have signed them already.

A judge today ordered spinal surgery for a 9-day-old girl with multiple birth defects, but the order was blocked tonight on an appeal by her parents. Ninety minutes after Justice Melvyn Tanenbaum issued the first order in State Supreme Court here, the infant's doctors said they could not operate on her today because her temperature had risen to 102 degrees, and they were worried that a serious infection had set in. Her parents' lawyer, Paul Gianelli, appealed Justice Tanenbaum's decision, saying the baby would be ''paralyzed'' for life whether or not the surgery was performed. Tonight, Justice Lawrence Bracken of the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court stayed Justice Tanenbaum's order pending a hearing by a three-judge appellate panel, scheduled for Friday at 2 P.M. The effect of Justice Bracken's stay is to block the operation before the hearing Friday, even if the baby's fever goes down.

T. Boone Pickens Jr., the Texas oilman and stock speculator, said he had bought 8.75 percent of the Gulf Oil Corporation to produce ''a significant appreciation'' of Gulf's stock through a revamping of the company. But Wall Street analysts are divided over whether his plan to break up Gulf into smaller companies - or possibly create a royalty trust - would mean greater value for shareholders. Mr. Pickens has said Gulf stock, which closed at $46 a share last night, up 62 1/2 cents, is undervalued. He contended that his plan would push its price closer to $114 a share.

Two financial companies were selected yesterday to purchase New York City's Convention Center for about $600 million under a plan that would allow the state to cover cost overruns and complete the center's construction. Under the plan, the state would lease the center from its new owners and have an option to buy it back in 30 years. The owners would receive substantial tax benefits. A 'Creative' Solution ''We have found a creative and prudent solution to the problem of the center's cost overruns,'' said William J. Stern, chairman of the state's Urban Development Corporation, which is building the center.

The United States has shipped large quantities of military equipment and ammunition to Lebanon since the latest cease-fire was declared there, considerably improving the combat ability of the Lebanese Army, according to Defense Department officials. While many of the supplies, which include 68 M-48 tanks, a number of armored personnel carriers and cannon and huge amounts of ammunition, were requested before the cease-fire, many of the shipments began to arrive just as the cease-fire took effect Sept. 26. As a result, the officials say, the Lebanese have had ample time to unload, store and absorb the new goods and hardware. In Lebanon, meanwhile, all parties invited to a proposed national reconciliation conference have agreed to hold the meeting in Geneva next week, senior Government sources said today. (Page A6.)

When Procter & Gamble was accused of promoting Satanism, the company turned to its consumer center, which took more than 100,000 calls on the company's 800 number, to make its case. ''It also helped us track how the rumor was going day by day and hour by hour,'' a company spokesman said. P.& G. later successfully sued several individuals for spreading the false rumor that the company's moon and stars trademark was a sign of loyalty to Satan. Johnson & Johnson found a similar use for its consumer hot line during last year's panic associated with the deaths of seven Chicago-area consumers from cyanide-laced Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules. The company continues to operate a half-dozen consumer lines. ''It is a way of humanizing the large corporation,'' said Jane Yates, a vice president for Johnson & Johnson Products Inc., the unit that makes Band-Aids and dental floss.

Aid for Nicaraguan rebels was opposed by the House for the second time. The vote was 227 to 194, an identical 33-vote margin to the House action on July 28. The aid cutoff measure was attached to the House intelligence authorization bill. The Senate has not yet taken up its version of the measure. (Page A1, Column 6.) Brazil's deeply troubled economy has generated an uncharacteristic national mood of despair. Major companies are declaring bankruptcy almost daily, overpasses and bridges have become homes for the dispossessed, and mobs of poor people are looting food stores. (A1:2-3.)

The House of Representatives brushed aside appeals from the Reagan Administration today and voted for a second time to cut off United States support for Nicaraguan rebels. The vote was 227 to 194, and the 33- vote margin was identical to the one in the House action July 28. Those who voted in favor appeared to be responding to charges that American covert operations were intensifying the warfare in Central America. The aid cutoff measure was attached to the House intelligence authorization bill. The Senate has not yet taken up its own version of the bill