What was going on when I was born?

New Yorkers are getting their first glimpse of a future that looks more like the past - a plan for a four-block parcel that is meant to evoke Gramercy Park's intimacy and Central Park West's majesty on what is now an empty landfill. Those planning the latest addition to the slowly emerging Battery Park City gathered Monday night to recall how the master plan had evolved. Their conclusion was that the effort to summon the best lessons of history was not a bow to architectural vogue but a logical response to what might be the most pervasive architectural influence of all: the marketplace. Barry E. Light, president of the Battery Park City Authority, emphasized the importance of financing to such a project. ''We are not going to return to the celebration of the city unless we can build it,'' he said.

It is a miracle, E. B. White once remarked, that New York works. ''By rights New York should have destroyed itself years ago,'' he wrote, ''from panic or fire or rioting or failure of some vital supply line in its circulatory system.'' Last night, the fund for the City of New York celebrated the proposition that more than 200,000 municipal workers stand between the city and such chaos. At a ceremony at the Roosevelt Hotel, the fund singled out six civil servants, honoring their performance with Lucite plaques and tax-free checks for $5,000.

IN a time when American menus are more and more being homogenized by culinary hype, the planning of a Thanksgiving dinner stands out as one of the last bastions of ruggedly personal decision-making. Any one of us beyond the age of 10 is convinced that he or she alone knows precisely what the meal should include: with a dogmatism nurtured by nostalgia for Thanksgivings past, we hurl at each other our several and competing orthodoxies. One of us declares the feast will fail without oyster dressing; another must have a sausage stuffing on the side. Still another insists that red cabbage is essential, while someone else never heard of such a thing. The cranberry sauce should be Recipes are on page C8. lumpy, or it should be smooth, or it should be uncooked, or banished altogether because it fights with the wine. There is even the occasional heretic who thinks turkey a bore and chooses goose, duck or fresh ham instead.

''We hereby declare before the world and before history the establishment of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus as an independent state.

WHEN Peter Taylor was an infant, several physicians advised his parents to institutionalize the child because they predicted that Down's syndrome, a genetic disorder, would prevent him from ever doing the things that other children do. His parents disagreed. ''In spite of the obstacles, we persevered,'' said his mother, Charlotte Taylor of Princeton, N.J. ''We wanted to bring up Peter to have as normal a life as possible because we believe that he had as much right to be independent as did our four normal children.'' Mr. Taylor, now 26 years old, has fulfilled his parents' dreams. Instead of being shut away in an institution, he works as a butcher's assistant and shares an apartment with another young man. In his spare time, he plays basketball, swims and attends football games. He has many friends and has even traveled abroad.

The International Business Machines Corporation said today that it would seek up to $2.5 billion in damages from the National Semiconductor Corporation, which it has accused of using stolen I.B.M. computer secrets. The computer giant had previously sued National Semiconductor and a subsidiary, National Advanced Systems, on charges that the chip manufacturer set up a joint espionage effort with Hitachi Ltd. of Japan to obtain I.B.M. trade secrets. The charges grew out of a Federal ''sting'' operation last year.

The Economy Factory output rose 0.8 percent in October, the 11th consecutive monthly gain, the Federal Reserve reported. The increase was the smallest since the recession ended last November, reflecting a normal slowing of growth. Economists hailed new evidence of rising outlays for expansion and modernization. (Page D1.) President Reagan urged Congress to raise the national debt limit to $1,600 billion. Otherwise, he warned, the Government will run out of cash Dec. 1. (A26.)

Rebel Palestinians launched a heavy attack on Yasir Arafat's last stronghold this morning, and riflemen and tanks advanced to within 200 yards of the camp's barbed wire barriers. More than 100 civilians were reported killed or wounded in the assault, which came after two days of relative calm and was the most intense since the start of the fighting 12 days ago. In early evening, a close aide to Mr. Arafat, the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said the camp, Beddawi, remained in the hands of pro-Arafat forces. Mr. Arafat's P.L.O. office here said the attack was crushed in the afternoon. But as night fell, journalists in the area said the fighting was continuing.

Tech Hifi, the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic stereo retailer, found that a knowledgeable sales staff handing out free expert advice was not the way to make money selling electronic equipment. Its new turnaround marketing strategy may sound familiar: discount pricing. The company, which began more than 20 years ago with some friends at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology assembling high-fidelity components for their classmates, now has 72 outlets and still ranks among the nation's five biggest audio- video retailing chains. The top four, by sales volume, are the Pacific Stereo Company, Emeryville, Calif.; the Federated Group, Los Angeles; Schaak Electronics, Minneapolis, and the Ward Company (Lafayette Radio/Circuit City), Richmond.

The Sandinista Government is losing political support in Western Europe because of its close ties to Cuba and its attitude toward its domestic critics, according to diplomats and foreign policy analysts here. ''We were very enthusiastic about the Sandinista revolution because we thought it would be truly nonaligned,'' said a European diplomat. ''But it seems clear by now that the Sandinista political project is to radicalize the regime and lean more heavily each day on the Communist bloc. Europeans are only now beginning to realize this.''

Roll-call vote, page B5. WASHINGTON, Nov. 15 - After a bitter partisan debate, the House of Representatives today narrowly defeated a sudden move to revive the proposed equal rights amendment to the Constitution. The amendment guaranteeing equal rights for women was scheduled for floor action by the Speaker of the House, Thomas P. O'Neill Jr., after the Democrats acted Monday to suspend the normal rules and limit debate to 40 minutes and bar modification of the measure. The suspension of rules is normally reserved for noncontroversial legislation. Using the tactic for the proposed equal rights amendment, which has a long and tortuous history, infuriated the Republican minority in the House, many of whose members support the constitutional change.

Today the American Telephone and Telegraph Company releases its long- awaited, sure-fire best seller on the break-up of the world's largest company. A volume of about 300 pages, gray with scrupulously prepared prose and figures, it will be the first definitive look at the shape and expected performance of the company and its seven offspring after divestiture on Jan. 1. The volume, a stock registration document required by the Securities and Exchange Commission, is scheduled for a first printing of 3 million copies - one for every A.T.&T. shareholder plus enough, it is hoped, to satisfy Wall Street's thirst for information about the gigantic spin-off. ''All the analysts have really been looking forward to the information prospectuses,'' said Jack MacAllister, chairman of U S West, one of the seven regional holding companies being created from the Bell system. ''The analysts are going to make hundreds of thousands of comparisons involving our economic projections and philosophy and then make judgments. Before you can really answer whether one company is a good investment or not, you just have to look at the prospectus.''