What was going on when I was born?

The Nissan Motor Company Ltd., the world's fourth-largest maker of motor vehicles, has just spent two years and millions of dollars successfully trying to destroy one of this country's better known automobile brand names. The 50-year-old Japanese company is in the process of abandoning the Datsun name so it can consolidate its worldwide marketing under a single corporate banner. Beginning last October, the company started promoting all its cars under the Nissan name. All older models that still carry the Datsun logotype now have a Nissan tag, too.

In a fit of delight, Carmen Fuentes kissed the wall of her apartment building. ''I'd rather kiss your feet,'' she told Dominick Cordi and Sol Riess, city inspectors bearing thermometers who had come to check the heat in her Brooklyn apartment building yesterday. ''Thank the Lord you've come.'' The men were part of a special team of 12 inspectors who spent the day investigating complaints phoned into the city's Heat Complaint Bureau; a total of 6,613 were received from midnight Friday to midnight yesterday.

Across Eastern Europe, there are signs of a religious renewal. The pattern is as uneven as the patchwork of Roman Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox faiths that crisscrosses the six junior partners of the Warsaw Pact, and it is colored by the struggles between the countries and various churches that occurred both before and after the imposition of Communism in the late 1940's. Particularly in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, East Germany and Poland, clergymen and scholars say growing numbers of people are turning to - or turning back to - churches that, under Marxist theory, should be on the road to extinction. In cities in Bulgaria and Rumania, there are reports of increased churchgoing, but few signs of a major revival. Not a Mass Movement With the exception of Poland, where the Roman Catholic Church is the guardian of national aspirations, the movement of renewal is not a mass phenomenon. Rather, active Christians are normally a minority in societies that have become secularized through industrialization, Communist propaganda and persecution.

Angola, reacting to major military gains by rebel forces, has begun a major counteroffensive against the South African- backed guerrillas, according to diplomats and other authorities in Europe. But these authorities, who include diplomats and Portuguese and African officials, said the rebels, led by Jonas Savimbi, may have become too powerful for Angola to defeat them militarily. These military developments come when, in addition to its civil war with the rebels, Angola has become deeply embroiled in another conflict with international ramifications: the fight over South-West Africa, or Namibia, which lies across its southern border. South Africa, which rules Namibia in defiance of the United Nations, has occupied territory in southern Angola since 1981 in an effort to root out guerrillas from the South-West Africa People's Organization, who have been fighting against Pretoria's domination of the territory for 17 years.

When Apple Computer Inc. introduces its long-awaited Macintosh computer tomorrow, it may represent the last serious assault on the dominance of the International Business Machines Corporation in the personal computer industry. The Macintosh, unlike many personal computers introduced over the past year, is completely incompatible with the I.B.M. Personal Computer. Thus, it is a gamble for Apple because many of the most widely used computer programs on the market are designed for the I.B.M. machine. ''They are taking an awesome risk,'' said David Lawrence, an analyst for Montgomery Securities in San Francisco. ''The bottom line is 'Can you establish an alternative to I.B.M.?' ''

European industrialists and government officials have reacted angrily to new American moves intended to stop militarily useful technology from being diverted to the Soviet bloc from countries outside the Western alliance. The executives said proposed American export rules would make it harder for European companies to buy high-technology items from the United States or to acquire licenses to produce such equipment themselves. They also complained about proposed reporting requirements that would apply to foreign companies buying such equipment. And they charged that the new rules could give their American rivals a competitive advantage in some markets by disclosing the identity of the clients of European companies.

Attorney General William French Smith has resigned, and President Reagan plans to replace him with Edwin Meese 3d, the White House counselor, Administration officials said today. The officials said that Mr. Smith told the President at a White House meeting Wednesday that he wanted to return to private life. The President accepted the resignation, the officials said. An announcement of the resignation of Mr. Smith and his replacement by Mr. Meese was expected this week, possibly on Monday, Administration officials said. By all accounts, the decision of the 66-year-old Attorney General startled Mr. Reagan and his staff, although some officials said Mr. Smith had recently told friends from California that he was thinking of leaving. Before joining the Reagan Administration, Mr. Smith was Mr. Reagan's personal lawyer in Los Angeles.

''If they want force, we would use force.'' - Pierre Gemayel head of Lebanon's Phalangist Party. (A1:4.)

CHARLIE SUMNER had a hunch. In the moments before Jack Squirek intercepted Joe Theismann's pass for a 5-yard touchdown that detonated the Los Angeles Raiders' 38-9 rout of the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XVIII yesterday, the Raider linebacker coach remembered a similar situation in a 37-35 loss at Washington in the regular season. ''When they were backed up in that game, they threw a screen pass to Joe Washington for 67 yards,'' Charlie Sumner was saying now. ''I just knew it was coming again, that's why I wanted Squirek in there. It was just an adjustment.''

While there is little chance of a major tax increase getting through Congress this year, $30 billion to $40 billion of so- called minor tax increases over three years could pass Congress this year and be signed into law by President Reagan. Many of these proposals are left over from 1983, and action on them is possible early in the new session of Congress, which begins Monday. The proposals also will get a lift from the Reagan Administration. The bulk of them will be included in President Reagan's 1985 budget, officials say.

So often with Super Bowl games, the more that is expected, the less is delivered. Never before was so much expected. But this time, in Super Bowl XVIII, only one team delivered - the Los Angeles Raiders - and for the third time in eight seasons, the Raiders are the National Football League champions. On a cool and clear evening in Tampa Stadium, before a sellout crowd of 72,920 and millions more watching on television around the world, the Raiders defeated the Washington Redskins, 38-9, in record-setting fashion. Widest Winning Margin With the aggressiveness of their defense, timely play by their special teams and several sensational plays by their offense, including a 74-yard touchdown run by Marcus Allen - the longest run in any Super Bowl - the Raiders won by the widest margin in any Super Bowl. The previous record margin, 25 points, had stood since the first Super Bowl, when the Green Bay Packers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10.

When Congress returns Monday from a two- month recess, the most pressing questions on the agenda will be whether the marines should stay in Lebanon and how a budget deficit that could approach $200 billion in the next year can be reduced. Interviews with more than a dozen members as they traveled in their home districts over the last week indicated that some of them saw a strong upsurge in public sentiment against the continued presence of the marines. Accordingly, some members who have been supporting the Reagan Administration's Middle East policy now say a change is necessary. 'Time to Re-assess' A typical comment came from Representative G. William Whitehurst, a conservative Republican of Virginia, who said: ''We've been there now a year and a half, and we've lost some people. O.K., the question is, 'Where is the peace? Is peace any closer?' '' ''If it is, I haven't seen it,'' he said. ''I think the time has come to reassess.''