What was going on when I was born?

The Cone Mills Corporation, a textile company that has been the target of a takeover attempt by Western Pacific Industries, yesterday announced an agreement for Cone to be bought by management, employees and institutional investors. Cone said holders of its 5.5 million outstanding shares would receive $70 a share, or a total of $385 million. The stock closed yesterday at $66.75, up $3.50, on the New York Stock Exchange. Its price has risen more than $20 since Western Pacific disclosed its takeover attempt early this month.

The Colombian Government is embroiled in an angry dispute with Chase Manhattan bank over the mysterious disappearance of $13.5 million from Colombia's account with the bank's London branch. According to testimony and documents produced at a series of Congressional hearings here, the money disappeared after an exchange of fake telexes that authorized a transfer of funds involving Chase, Morgan Guaranty Trust and the Hapoalim Bank of Tel Aviv. So far, the Government said, it does not know who sent the telexes and who got the money. The funds were part of a $47.2 million loan made by Chase and Manufacturer's Hanover Trust in May 1982 for use by the Colombian Defense Ministry in the purchase of police transport, and supplies and communications equipment for the Colombian navy.

-so-simple side dish of cranberries, buttered pecans and Cognac to a chicken rollatini stuffed with mozzarella and prosciutto, specialty food carryout shops are helping to ease the burden of the holiday season. Between Thanksgiving and New Year's, when most free time is devoted to Christmas shopping and holiday entertaining, something has to give. Like dusting. Or sleeping. Or cooking. At this time of year the carryout shops, which have blossomed all over the city in the last several years, can provide relief by offering everything from a snack to a full-course banquet, often without any advance notice. They make it possible to produce entire dinner parties in 30 minutes, feed unexpected company or help out a frantic hostess, all without having to turn on the stove. Not everything from these shops is wonderful, of course. But winning dishes are there for the picking; all you have to know is where to look.

''This bill allows the seizure of these particularly dangerous weapons prior to their being used.

The bitterly contested seizure of the Biscayne Federal Savings and Loan Association by bank regulators was upheld today in a ruling that could clear the way for the sale of the insolvent thrift institution. Although further appeals are planned, the decision by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta was an important victory for the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, which took control of Biscayne on April 6. Today's decision overturned a Federal judge's ruling in September that the action by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board had been illegal and that the institution must be returned to its stockholders. Edwin J. Gray, the bank board chairman, said in a statement: ''We are extremely pleased that the appeals court panel has unanimously vindicated the bank board's receivership action.'' He added: ''The ruling reaffirms the board's statutory authority to act expeditiously and decisively to resolve cases of insolvent institutions.''

The Dow Jones industrial average surged 17.38 points yesterday to a record closing high of 1,287.20. Analysts said heavy volume - 100.5 million shares traded, up from 78.2 million the day before - indicated that many cash-laden institutions had returned to the market. The best gainers were some of the blue-chip and technology issues. The market's overall advance, however, was not as sharp as the Dow's; winners outnumbered losers by about a 5-to-3 ratio. The performance of the two more broadly based market indicators yesterday was also more moderate. The New York Stock Exchange composite index of 1,500 common stocks rose 0.75, to 96.94, while Standard & Poor's index of 500 equities added 1.37, to 167.91. Both indexes are still below their record highs, set in October.

Mayor Koch said yesterday that a potential $1 billion surplus that could be generated by the state's Municipal Assistance Corporation should be used for a combination of capital projects, daily city expenses and long-term economic development, possibly including paying for cost overruns for the Convention Center. Mr. Koch suggested a complex method for carrying out his plan that, he said, would remove the final vestiges of the city's fiscal crisis of the mid-1970's. This would include having the Assistance Corporation borrow $1 billion for the city next year while the city borrowed a similar amount to redeem all bonds backed by the Federal Government. Paying off those bonds by next year, or about six years ahead of schedule in some cases, is ''a matter of prestige,'' the Mayor said. Curtailment of Agencies In response to questions, he acknowledged that one effect of prepaying those bonds would be the elimination of most of the powers of the state monitoring agencies by the end of 1984. These agencies, especially the Financial Control Board, were established during the fiscal crisis to make sure the city did not balance its budgets with gimmicks.

The Bonn prosecutor's office announced today that it intended to indict Economics Minister Otto Lambsdorff on charges of taking bribes. The prosecutor asked the West German Parliament to lift Mr. Lambsdorff's parliamentary immunity. The action came after a two-year investigation into West Germany's biggest political corruption scandal and marked the first time in the 34-year history of the Federal Republic of Germany that a prosecutor had moved to indict an incumbent Cabinet minister. Johannes Wilhelm, a prosecutor, said at a news conference that Hans Friderichs, a former Economics Minister and chairman of West Germany's second largest bank, had been indicted along with three others in what the prosecution says was a large payoff scheme.

Darra Goldstein is the author of ''A La Russe'' (Random House, 1983). THE food of Georgia, the rugged mountain province in the heart of the Caucasus, seems to have a special appeal for the Russian people. Perhaps the allure is one of opposites: The Georgians, a colorful Middle Eastern mountain civilization, have developed a cuisine of spicy complexity in comparison with the more straightforward cooking of the Russians, sedate flatlanders. Poached chicken in a rich sauce of ground walnuts flavored with garlic and cinnamon, grilled beef spiced with coriander, basil and pepper, lamb roasted on a spit in the open air, kidney beans sharply seasoned with sour plums, a salad made of fresh herbs - bold combinations of taste such as these have come to be prized far beyond their native borders. Moscow's most popular restaurant is the Aragvi (named for the fast- flowing Georgian river), and there is always a long line of people outside, hoping for a chance at a lavish meal of Georgian specialties, served to the accompaniment of a Georgian band.

The Charlotte Curtis column yesterday, on a dinner in honor of C. Douglas Dillon, misidentified the firm of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. It is an investment banking house.

Markets Stock prices soared to a new closing high, with the Dow Jones industrial average rising 17.38 points, to 1,287.20. Analysts attributed the surge to growing participation by institutional accounts. Over all, the market's gain was not as strong as that of the Dow, however. Other, more broadly based indexes rose only modestly, remaining behind highs set in October. (Page D1.) Strong demand for new Treasury notes helped raise bond prices by about half a point. Short-term interest rates declined slightly. (D9.) The dollar fell in the U.S. after hitting new highs in Europe against the French franc and the Italian lira. Gold prices rose $2.50 an ounce, to $396.50, in New York. (D14.) Cocoa and orange juice futures prices were higher. (D14.)

Millions of gallons of gasoline leaking from storage tanks each year poses a potentially serious threat to underground water supplies, the Environmental Protection Agency warned today. Jack E. Ravan, the agency's assistant administrator for water, said that 75,000 to 100,000 storage tanks were leaking 11 million gallons of gasoline annually, and that the number of leaking tanks at service stations and elsewhere was increasing. Mr. Ravan testified at hearings on hazardous substances in the nation's water supplies, being held by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee's Toxic Substances Subcommittee. He said that one gallon of gasoline a day leaking into an underground water source was enough to cause significant pollution in the water supplies of a community of 50,000 people. Gasoline leaks ''may be one of the most common causes of ground water pollution in many parts of the country,'' he said.