What was going on when I was born?

When Bell Canada reorganized last April into Bell Canada Enterprises, investors bid up its stock on the expectation that the big utility was preparing to follow its distant cousin, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, into a future of unregulated growth in high technology. This week, however, the big Montreal-based company confounded those expectations by making a surprise offer for Canada's biggest pipeline company. Bell announced that it had agreed to pay $167 million (Canadian), or $31.50 a share, to acquire the 11.8 percent interest in TransCanada Pipelines Ltd. that is held by Dome Canada. It then offered the same price for all of TransCanada's 45 million shares, or an indicated $1.42 billion.

Texts of statements, Page A16. GENEVA, Dec. 8 - The current round of American-Soviet talks on limiting strategic nuclear arms ended here today with the Russians refusing to set a date for resumption. The Soviet delegation said it felt compelled ''to re-examine all the issues'' in view of the deployment of new American medium-range nuclear missiles in Europe. That deployment has brought about ''a change in the overall strategic situation,'' the Soviet statement said.

Despite three years of rapidly rising budgets, the Navy is far from ready to deploy fully armed and equipped aircraft carriers and air wings in the event of war, a confidential report by the General Accounting Office says. The office, a Congressional investigative agency, said the main reason was that the Navy spent too much money on new ships and planes in the last three years and not enough on maintenance, fuel, ammunition and support equipment. In response to the report, the Navy said it had been trying for two years to overcome the effects of 15 years of inadequate allocations and was beginning to move closer to its desired state of readiness. Situation After 2 Months The accounting office report said that in two months after a war started only 8 of the Navy's 14 carriers could be put to sea ready for battle. It said those carriers could be deployed only by stripping shore bases of weapons and equipment.

Companies Eastern Air Lines and three of its unions reached an accord that is expected to save the airline $330 million in wages next year and bring it $87 million in productivity gains. In return, the unions will get a large say in management decisions and will eventually own about one-fourth of the company's common stock. Many hard- pressed companies have forged similar concession agreements in recent weeks, experts observed, but thus far none have given up so many management rights in the process. (Page A1.) U.S. Steel is warning some 4,700 employees that their jobs could be eliminated if they do not accept further concessions. (D5.)

An article in Business Day yesterday about the Bank of America misstated the number of branches to be closed in 1984. It is 120.

''Step right up, ladies and gentlemen,'' shouted a man in a skewed Santa Claus hat waving a blue nylon streamer. ''We're going to have a good old-fashioned pep rally here.'' Cheerleaders! Cymbals! Crowds! Columbia? It was an odd sight, indeed, as Columbia University celebrated its championship soccer team yesterday with a rare pep rally on the steps of Low Memorial Library.

Governor Cuomo says he will restore cuts he made in funds for psychiatric clinics across New York State when he draws up the state budget for next year. He acted after intense criticism from Mayor Koch and local mental health officials, and after New York City provided funds to keep all its overcrowded psychiatric clinics open this year despite the state cuts. The Governor said that although the state could argue ''technically'' that it was right in cutting the aid, he would reverse the policy for the coming year.

A dissident shareholder group led by Samuel J. Heyman won the bitter contest for control of the GAF Corporation yesterday when a three-judge Federal appeals panel unanimously overturned a lower court decision calling for a new shareholder vote. After the ruling was issued, Jesse Werner, chief executive of the chemical and building products company for the last 18 years, met with Mr. Heyman to offer his cooperation in the transition to new management next week. ''I received a call from Dr. Werner earlier this afternoon in which he pledged his cooperation in an orderly transition,'' said Mr. Heyman, a Connecticut real estate developer. ''Dr. Werner has offered his congratulations,'' he added.

Federal District Judge Harry E. Claiborne of Las Vegas was indicted today by a Federal grand jury on charges of bribery, tax evasion, obstruction of justice and filing a false financial declaration. He is one of the few Federal judges ever indicted on felony charges. The chief witness against the 66- year-old chief judge of the Federal District of Nevada is Joseph Conforte, 57 years old, from whom Judge Claiborne is accused of soliciting and receiving a $30,000 bribe. Witness Was Brothel Operator Mr. Conforte operated a brothel in the Reno area for two decades before he fled the country in 1980 to avoid going to jail. Some Nevadans have questioned the propriety of building a case against a judge around the testimony of a former brothel operator and convicted felon.

A picture caption in Metropolitan Report yesterday misidentified the man placing an academic hood on the gown of King Juan Carlos I of Spain. He was L. Jay Oliva, chancellor of New York University.

VISUALLY and otherwise, New York means many things to many people - skyscrapers, traffic jams, street vendors, ethnic neighborhoods, night life, tourists, construction workers, monuments and museums. It's this potpourri of sights that makes the city such a feast for photographers. Besides providing homes and studios for thousands of professional picture takers, it offers its hospitality to all who come here bearing cameras, hoping to take home a memento or two. That is especially true at this time of year, which is, along with the summer-vacation season, peak picture-taking time for Americans. Weekends, it goes without saying, are prime time for photography; they provide the leisure necessary to notice and explore what on weekdays most of us blithely pass by. The city at this holiday season is not only diverse, but also colorful. Yet the vast majority of the classic photographs of New York have been taken with black-and-white film. Perhaps the special essence of the city, its glamour and grittiness, is revealed to best advantage in the tonalities of a black-and-white picture. It takes a practiced photographic eye to see in black and white, and to translate the resulting vision onto film. However, photography is possibly the most accessible of all the arts. The same techniques and equipment are available to all; what makes the great photographers great is experience and sometimes genius.

An anonymous benefactor has given $50 million to the Cornell University Medical College, one of the largest awards ever made to an American medical school, the college announced yesterday. ''This is a tremendously exciting development which will enable us to explore new areas in medical education and research in preparing us to meet the challenges of the 21st century.'' said Dr. Thomas H. Meikle Jr., dean of the medical college. ''I view it as an opportunity but also a responsibility.'' The details of the financial arrangements were withheld at the donor's request, but they provide for a $3 million annual grant in perpetuity for the college, Dr. Frank H.T. Rhodes, president of Cornell University, said at a news conference.