What was going on when I was born?

The governors of seven Northeastern states agreed today to work toward establishing a uniform minimum drinking age in an effort to reduce alcohol- related highway accidents and fatalities. It was the first time the Governors had agreed to try to replace the three different minimum drinking ages that now prevail in their states with a single regionwide age. Governor Cuomo of New York proposed the idea of a single age at a breakfast meeting before a daylong series of panel discussions and speeches on ways to reduce acid rain in the environment. The conference was sponsored by the Coalition of Northeastern Governors and Governor Kean of New Jersey was the host.

An American flier will not be freed until ''the war'' is over and American forces leave Lebanon, Syria's Defense Minister announced. He confirmed a report that the other American airman in the attack bomber shot down Sunday had died and said his body would be delivered to the American Embassy. (Page A1, Column 6.) Moscow condemned the American air strikes against Syrian positions in Lebanon, terming them ''a serious threat to peace in the Middle East and not only in that region.'' (A18:2-5.)

The best telephone salesman in J. Rudy Martin's insurance office, near Roanoke, Va., never gets angry, never breaks for lunch and, best of all, never forgets a name. Mr. Martin's star salesman is a computer, just one of many so-called telemarketing systems that are becoming indispensable to many businesses, politicians, schools and even clergymen throughout the country. Sears, Roebuck & Company uses the machines to notify its customers when their catalogue orders are ready. Political candidates use them to canvass voters, and schools use them to check on truants. The new machines, which retail for between $3,000 and $10,000, are automatic callers and recorders, and can complete more than a call a minute - and between 512 and 7,160 total calls, depending on the model - without a human attendant.

MIDDLE COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL, a New York City public school in Queens, is a success story. It has been deemed so successful, in fact, that the Carnegie Foundation, in its recent report on what is wrong with American high schools, pointed to Middle College as a school that seemed to be doing something right. City-As-School, another high school in the city's system, is also considered successful. It admits troubled students, most of them likely dropouts, and manages to keep a good number of them in school until they graduate.

Syria's Minister of Defense said today that the American airman captured by Syrian troops after they shot down his aircraft on Sunday would not be returned until ''the war'' was over and American troops left Lebanon. He confirmed a report that the other American flier in the Navy attack bomber had died, and said the body was to be turned over to the United States Embassy in Damascus today. A car bomb exploded in a crowded quarter of mainly Moslem West Beirut today. The blast killed 14 people and wounded 83, and set several buildings and 30 cars on fire, the police said. Marines Remain on Alert The American marines remained on alert in their compound at Beirut International Airport, although there was no resumption of the shelling that killed eight of them and wounded two on Sunday. The shelling occurred hours after an American air strike on Syrian targets east of the Lebanese capital in which two United States planes were shot down.

Two scientists conducted a fluid-physics experiment last week under the most unusual circumstances. They worked shoulder to shoulder, or so it seemed, and yet they were thousands of miles apart in distinctly different fields of gravity. Their experiment and their methods typified a new way of conducting scientific research in a new kind of laboratory beyond the earth in the endlessly mysterious environment of space. Ulf Merbold, a West German physicist, was the one actually in space. He floated in the virtual absence of gravity inside the earth-orbiting Spacelab, the large research facility in the space shuttle Columbia's cargo bay. His attention was focused on the fluid- physics module in a cabinet positioned almost exactly at the spaceship's center of mass. None of the other five crewmen were stirring, so as not to disturb the experiment with any vibrations. John F. Padday, a British physicist, was rooted to earth's gravity in the Payload Operations Control Center here at the Johnson Space Center. He sat at a coffee table in one of the six scientists' rooms off the main control room. Spread before him on the table were his experiment-procedures book, a plastic model of the test equipment, a small calculator and a tape recorder, which he calls his ''electronic notebook.''

SCIENTISTS are setting out to grow breeds of giant mice that are genetically a little bit human. Dozens of such animals have already been born, each carrying transplanted genes for human growth hormone that makes them grow to twice their normal size. The aim is better understanding of how genes are controlled, but practical applications are already being pursued including the development of faster growing, better quality beef cattle, that might have immense impact on future agriculture. Moreover, issues have already been raised concerning the ethics of doing similar gene transplantations in humans, although specialists put the prospect of doing this many years in the future because unknowns and technical obstacles are so great. Some of the new mice are about twice normal size because they carry human genes for the production of growth hormone and have an oversupply of that hormone in their blood. From these animals, scientists hope to breed whole colonies of mice that will pass the human gene to their offspring in the normal course of heredity.

New-car sales by the nation's major manufacturers rose by 18.7 percent, on a daily rate basis, in the final 10 days of November, easing concerns among industry analysts that the level was falling off. ''There were a couple of blips early this month and they made some people nervous,'' said Harvey Heinbach, an auto analyst for Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith. ''The selling rate for the entire month is still flat, as far as I'm concerned. It should be better and, looking at the economic environment, it will be better in December and into next year,'' he added, citing strength in employment and improving personal income figures.

An article Oct. 31 on the Alfred Hitchcock movie ''Rear Window'' incorrectly reported its television history. It has been shown on television three times - in 1966, 1967 and 1971.

News session excerpts, page A20. WASHINGTON, Dec. 5 - Secretary of State George P. Shultz called on the Soviet Union today to use its influence with Syria ''to look at the Lebanon problem in a sensible way'' and not widen the conflict there. At a press conference in which virtually all questions were related to the American air attack on Syrian positions in Lebanon, Mr. Shultz was blunt in saying that ''we will defend ourselves'' if American reconnaissance planes are attacked again. But he said the American goal was to promote peace, not to enlarge the war.

Almost 75 years after it began in the United States, workers' compensation insurance is at a crossroads. Employers who pay for it, workers who receive it and insurance companies that handle it are all concerned whether the system, as currently structured, is equipped to handle its new financial burdens. The payment of benefits to workers who suffer injury or death on the job has traditionally been the principal function of this state- regulated insurance system. But recently, regulators, insurance companies and others involved with workers' compensation have been focusing more intently on the increase in the value of claims for job-related diseases.

Companies Superior Oil bowed to strong investor objections and rescinded a stock-dividend plan it announced two weeks ago as a way to protect itself from a takeover. But the company rejected a proposal by Howard B. Keck, 70-year-old former chairman, that it put itself on the auction block. (Page D1.) Western Union, preparing for stiff competition in 1984, plans to take a $125 million charge against fourth-quarter earnings and cut its work force by 5 percent. Analysts said the charge would result in a loss of about $102 million for the quarter and $35 million for the year. (D1.)