What was going on when I was born?

All-star basketball games are for fun. The players freelance and the coaches use few plays, if any, that might take away from the usually spectacular one-on-one confrontations. But today K. C. Jones didn't follow the usual pattern as the coach of the Eastern Conference all-stars. Jones, the Boston Celtic coach, treated the National Basketball Association's 34th All-Star Game as importantly as a regular-season game, and the result was a 154-145 overtime victory over the West at McNichols Arena.

President Reagan, asserting that his Administration had ''made a new beginning'' but that ''our work is not finished,'' declared tonight that he and Vice President Bush would seek re-election this year. In a five-minute nationally televised speech, Mr. Reagan began by saying that he had come to ''a difficult personal decision'' about whether to seek another term. He spoke briefly of how his Administration had reduced inflation, rebuilt American defenses and restored ''great American values.'' Not until the conclusion did he say that he and Mr. Bush ''would like to have your continued support and cooperation in completing what we began three years ago.'' The Uncertainty Ends Mr. Reagan's announcement ended the trace of uncertainty that had surrounded his intentions for months. He is not expected to face serious opposition for the Republican Presidential nomination. He enters the race just as the contest for the Democratic Presidential nomination is heating up, with former Vice President Walter F. Mondale considered his leading opponent. The announcement was celebrated by the President's supporters, derided by his opponents and prompted promises of a tough campaign from Republicans and Democrats alike. (Page A11.)

Just minutes from the ski lifts and condominiums of Lake Placid, within earshot of snowmobile and automobile, a hundred men and women and a thousand dogs gathered this weekend for one of the ancient rites of winter. A minister, a doctor, a hunting guide and a logger among them, they came from as far away as Belgium and Norway, from as near as Hackettstown, N.J., and Old Forge, N.Y. They are ''mushers,'' and they were here to race dog sleds. ''I know it sounds corny, but there's something about the solitude - having those animals who just want to please you,'' said Dr. Jerry Steingard, a 44- year-old general practitioner who lives in Medford, N.J., and has 40 dogs. ''It's just you and them and the elements. You become a little euphoric.

Major European and American banks are privately urging France to negotiate easier repayment terms for some of its huge foreign debt, now estimated at more than $50 billion, according to banking sources. These bankers, attending a large business conference here, say that repayment of much of the roughly $25 billion that France's ruling Socialists have borrowed abroad over the last three years will start to fall due around 1988 and 1989. To ease this heavy repayments burden, Western banks are encouraging the Government to refinance this debt, spreading payment of principal over a longer time. No firm agreement has been reached, but bankers say that they expect the Government to work out such a plan so that the country has greater economic freedom toward the end of the decade.

A sense of rising alarm about terrorism against Arabs has gripped Israeli political and religious leaders following an attempted attack last week on the holiest Moslem shrine in Jerusalem. Details of the attempt, the latest in a series of attacks on churches and mosques, have emerged over the last few days. The police initially refused to confirm Moslem leaders' assertions about the scope of the assault, which occurred Friday. But they issued a fairly full account today, indicating that Jewish militants may have been trying to plant explosives at the Dome of the Rock and Al Aksa Mosque.

Mae Ash used to be a maid at the Waldorf-Astoria. William McKie can tell stories about his cross-country travels. Ernest Alvizo taught school in Brooklyn. Donna Gray grew up in foster homes and has spent time in six mental hospitals. Though their pasts differ, they all have one thing in common: They are among New York City's homeless men and women, people most often described in statistics - in shelter counts and budget allotments and population percentages. Behind those numbers are the names and faces and struggles in a world that exists in every part of the city, in doorways and on park benches, in shelters and church basements, in subways and train stations, on Park Avenue and on the Bowery.

Texaco Inc. said yesterday that it had agreed to sell virtually all of the Getty Oil Company's retail activities in the Northeast and Middle Atlantic states to the Power Test Corporation, the largest independent gasoline distributor on the East Coast, once Texaco has completed its $10.1 billion merger with Getty. The sale, for $90 million, appears to clear away one of the two antitrust problems that legal experts said could prompt Federal intervention in the Getty-Texaco merger. Texaco owns service stations of its own in the Northeast; by selling Getty's outlets in the same area, the only area in which the two companies operate overlapping facilities would be in California. Texaco and Getty both own refineries in that state.

Seven months ago, with orders for its microprocessor chips pouring in, executives at the Intel Corporation began discouraging business from new customers. Demand has been so great, Intel officials say, that at least one desperate customer offered a bribe to guarantee delivery. Others took their business to other manufacturers, even placing multiple orders in hopes that at least one would come through. But Intel said it would give priority to its established customers, although even those customers sometimes did not get all they ordered.

A map and table that accompanied an article on nuclear power in Business Day on Jan. 20 omitted the source of the information. It was the Department of Energy.

Starting today, The Times offers expanded and redesigned daily television pages. They include added news, features and reviews, with program listings for both broadcast and cable television. Pages C15-C17.

''Vice President Bush and I would like to have your continued support and cooperation in completing what we began three years ago.

Guatemala will get helicopter parts worth $2 million from the United States, the State Department announced, despite a Congressional ban on military assistance to the country. The parts would be used for Guatemala's aging fleet of United States- made military helicopters. The first official sale of military equipment to that country since 1977 would not be a violation of the Congressional ban because the sale would be a cash transaction, the State Department said. (Page A1, Column 1.) Moscow has formally protested to the United States about what it said was a wide range of American violations of arms treaties with the Soviet Union, including the first and second agreements on limiting strategic nuclear weapons. (A1:3.)