What was going on when I was born?

An article yesterday in SportsMonday misstated the result of a Catholic High Schools Football League semifinal game. St. Anthony's defeated Cardinal Spellman, 29-23.

Awaited for years, the first commercial satellite-to-home television service is scheduled to begin this evening in a 33-county area surrounding Indianapolis. The new service, which involves direct-broadcast transmissions from a Canadian satellite to small rooftop dishes, is to be provided by United Satellite Communications Inc. Its shareholders are the Prudential Insurance Company, the General Instrument Corporation and a group of private investors. Other companies are expected to enter the direct-broadcast business, which could eventually reach between 5 million and 10 million households, according to industry experts. That would make it a supplement to over-the-air broadcasting and to cable transmission, the foundations of the television industry.

Text of Briton's statement, page A14. LONDON, Nov. 14 - American- made cruise missiles arrived today at an air base in England, the British Government announced. They are the first of NATO's new generation of medium- range missiles to be deployed in Western Europe. Britain's Defense Secretary, Michael Heseltine, told a deeply divided House of Commons that the shipment, delivered to Greenham Common air base by a United States plane, meant that an unspecified number of cruise missiles would be operational on schedule by the end of the year. Shouting to make himself heard over howls of protest from opposition legislators, he said, ''I have to inform the House that earlier today the first cruise missiles were delivered by air.''

Angel Rivera, 10 years old and slight of voice, was trying to explain. He was standing in what was once a ballroom at the Hotel Martinique in midtown Manhattan, a cavernous room with broken mirrors and gaping holes where chandeliers used to be, saying he really did want to go to school. But he had already been to two schools since his mother's Bronx apartment burned out last summer and was upset by the thought of starting over in yet another school. ''I don't like going to new schools,'' he told Cecilio Diaz, a school official who was trying to help. ''I get shy in the class.''

The United States offered today to refine its previous proposal on limiting medium- range missiles to the Soviet Union. The offer came amid predictions here that the Russians would reject the plan and announce that there was no longer any reason to continue negotiations. (In Moscow, the Government press agency Tass called the offer ''patently unacceptable.'' Page A15.)

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1983 Markets Key measures of the money supply are growing modestly, the Federal Reserve Board announced, and are well within or below this year's targets. Closely watched M-1 fell $2.5 billion for the week ended Nov. 2, a much bigger drop than analysts had expected. But interest rates were little changed after the report. (Page D1.) Stock prices rose moderately, with the Dow Jones industrial average up 3.87 points, to 1,254.07. (D14.) The dollar mostly fell in currency trading, while gold prices slipped $1 an ounce, to $382.50, in New York. (D18.) Heating-oil futures prices were weak. (D18.)

A United States officer was shot dead today by unidentified gunmen on a motorbike., the Greek state radio reported. Reuters, quoting the police, reported that the officer was a United States Navy captain, George Tsantes. He had been shot seven times on his way to work in Athens and his Greek driver, Nicolaos Veloutsos, was seriously wounded, the agency reported.

SCHOOLS are under pressure to offer their services to 3- and 4-year-olds and to provide a safe haven beyond the normal school day for older children. Debate is heating up whether the schools are ready and able to extend their reach and whether such an extension is in the best interests of children and families. Seen through nostalgia's lens, America's tots are playing safely under mother's watchful eye. Mention institutionalized child care, and conservatives sputter that a mother's place is in the home. If they know the term ''latchkey kids'' at all, it makes them think of little hoodlums from the slums. This was why conservatives cheered when President Nixon vetoed the Child Development Act, which tried to help the country catch up with reality.

To this day, Victor H. Palmieri enthusiastically describes the challenges he faces in untangling the morass at the Baldwin-United Corporation and why the job is a natural step in a career built on handling business and government crises. But the Baldwin experience has, at least for now, tarnished Mr. Palmieri's reputation as a turnaround specialist. In late September, four months after he took over the company, creditors forced Baldwin to file for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the Federal Bankruptcy Code. And if Baldwin is ever reorganized, it will be on a much smaller scale than Mr. Palmieri first envisioned. Mr. Palmieri now attributes the bankruptcy, in part, to his failed gamble on what he would find when he cut through Baldwin's complex finances and organization. In addition, he says he was strapped by agreements that were made before he came aboard. But he acknowledges that he, too, made some tactical errors.

New York City is near an agreement to house as many as 600 prisoners in one of two buildings in Brooklyn, a move designed to prevent a further release of inmates from overcrowded jails, city officials said yesterday. The announcement came as the city disclosed that it had halted a courtordered release of prisoners indefinitely after freeing 610 since Nov. 1. The Brooklyn buildings, a Federal detention center in Fort Greene and a privately owned former arsenal in Sunset Park, would be converted into jails for sentenced inmates under a city plan. Renovations Needed Frederick A. O. Schwarz Jr. the city's Corporation Counsel, said he thought the city would soon reach agreement to take over one of the buildings - ''and, I hope, both.'' Each can handle about 600 prisoners, he said.

-quarter bank earnings included two incorrect entries. The return on average stockholder equity at Bankers Trust was 15.35 percent. The return on average total assets at Citicorp was 0.65 percent.

SLIT EAR was feeding with her nine daughters and grandchildren when Tania came into view. The two matriarchs, members of a four-family group of 23 African elephants, had been apart for some time and were clearly excited about their reunion. Slit Ear stopped eating and ran toward Tania. The two elephants raised their heads and ears, clicked their tusks, turned, backed into each other, entwined trunks, all the while rumbling, trumpeting and loudly flapping their ears. The greeting ceremony between companion elephants is but one of thousands of elephant actions and interactions Cynthia Moss has witnessed since her arrival in Kenya as a research biologist in 1972. To Miss Moss, her decade-long study of the behavior of African elephants has been ''like reading a very good book about a family saga. You get so involved you don't want to put it down, but you also don't want it to end.