What was going on when I was born?

The United States said today that it welcomed some apparently conciliatory comments in the speech by the new Soviet leader, Konstantin U. Chernenko. American officials said the comments suggested that the door might be open to reviving a dialogue. Senior Reagan Administration officials said Mr. Chernenko's speech, which he gave after being chosen as the new General Secretary of the Communist Party, broke no major new ground. But they said it appeared to respond indirectly to President Reagan's call for a new ''constructive dialogue.'' Late this afternoon, President Reagan arrived at the Soviet Embassy in Washington and signed the condolence book for Yuri V. Andropov that was opened to the public this morning. The White House said Mr. Reagan signed this message: ''Please accept my condolences on the death of Chairman Andropov and convey my sympathy to his family.''

FOLIAGE is shaking in a tree to the left. It may be a monkey. No. A man with an ax is cutting branches, getting food for his buffalo. Another cut into Nepal's depleted forests. To the right, three heaping haystacks bob along the trail, seemingly under their own power. They evoke an old comedy - the Three Stooges, perhaps, trying to camouflage themselves? A change of angle reveals the girls underneath, carrying home straw for use as compost or fodder. And behind an older woman trudges along with 75 pounds of firewood on her back, the strap on her forehead supporting the load. More links in the chain that binds forests, food and people in Nepal. The chain becomes apparent on an 18-day, 200-mile trek around the Annapurna range of the Himalayas, which stand as a high symbol of a steadily worsening human dilemma: the need for food and fuel from an environment becoming less able to provide them. I came recently to Nepal to speak at a workshop of UNICEF, the United Nations Childrens Fund, about the third world's spreading shortage of firewood - the cooking fuel of half of humankind. Now, in the hinterlands, I get a close look at its remaining mountain woodland in a setting of stirring beauty and gentle, cheerful people.

The Coastal Corporation and the Houston Natural Gas Corporation ended their takeover struggle yesterday with a joint announcement that they had withdrawn their offers to acquire each other and had dropped all pending litigation. As part of the agreement, Houston Natural Gas paid Coastal $60 a share, or a total of $124.5 million, for the 2.08 million of its shares that Coastal had acquired. Coastal also got $15 million for its expenses incurred while the billion-dollar bids and counterbids raged in the last few weeks. Coastal's average price for its Houston Natural Gas stock was $46.95 a share, for a total of $97.4 million. Thus, its profit on the securities transactions was $27.1 million.

The United States, which had won only one medal in the first four days of full-scale competition at the XIV Olympic Winter Games, picked up two more today when Debbie Armstrong won the gold and Christin Cooper the silver in the women's giant slalom. The race marked the first time that Americans had ever taken the first two places in an Olympic skiing event. It also brought the first Olympic skiing gold medal to the United States since Barbara Ann Cochran won the women's slalom in 1972 at Sapporo, Japan. Meanwhile, the United States' medal hopes brightened on another front. Scott Hamilton of Denver was in the lead after the first of three days of competition by male figure skaters.

The Salvadoran Government lacks an effective mechanism for preventing the diversion of United States aid money, according to a confidential report prepared for the Agency for International Development. One result, according to the report, is that a Salvadoran importer can ''obtain foreign exchange for transfers to his offshore account.'' In addition, the report found that some Salvadoran businessmen were reporting ''that either political influence or payoffs are necessary to obtain timely financing for imports.'' The 100-page report was prepared by Arthur Young & Company, a private consulting company under contract to A.I.D., and completed in June 1983.

Michael Giordano was making his fourth and final pass at Macy's lingerie department. He veered in, slowed as he studied a rack of lacy negligees, then scurried off to an escalator. Mr. Giordano, 44 years old, said that he was unaccustomed to hanging around lingerie departments and that somewhere in the back of his mind was the notion that such activity is perhaps punishable by law - even though he was looking for a Valentine's Day gift for his wife. ''I never know what to do for Valentine's Day,'' said Mr. Giordano, who would seem to speak for millions of his fellow New Yorkers, who know that Feb. 14 is an undeclared holiday and that therefore they have to buy something - but what?

What with two natural disasters, a self-defeating price war and lagging investment income, the troubles of the property and casualty insurance industry are becoming acute. The industry has lost money on its underwriting every year since 1978, and last year the slide continued with damage claims soaring as a result of Hurricane Alicia in August and then the severe December freeze. Indeed, analysts expect combined damages for both to exceed $2 billion, while they estimate overall underwriting losses for the year at $12.2 billion. ''It was the worst underwriting year on record,'' said Maurice R. Greenberg, president and chief executive officer of the American International Group, a major commercial insurer.

''We need no military superiority. We do not intend to dictate our will to others.

The 10 panels that made Thomas Hart Benton one of the best known American muralists have been bought for a reported $3.1 million by the Equitable Life Assurance Society for its new headquarters in Manhattan. The panels that compose the mural, ''America Today,'' were removed from the New School for Social Research in May 1982 and sold to a private dealer. It had been uncertain whether Benton's work would stay in New York City, or even in one piece. That uncertainty has been resolved with the Equitable purchase, said people involved in the sale. The Manhattan art gallery that sold the mural, the Janet Gallery, said the sale price was a record amount for a corporate purchase of a 20th-century American work of art.

In selecting Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko to be the next leader of the Soviet Union, his comrades on the Politburo went for a Bolshevik from the old mold. Mr. Chernenko is widely regarded here as an ideologue, low on formal education or managerial experience but high on old-fashioned propaganda and party loyalty. If Yuri V. Andropov began his 15- month tenure saying that tired slogans would no longer suffice, Mr. Chernenko began his with a handful of slogans: ''Our party's principled stand on these issues is clear, pure and noble,'' ''The party, which is selflessly devoted to the masses, enjoys full trust of the masses,'' ''The inexhaustible strength of Soviet Communists is in cohesion of their ranks.'' Obligatory Theme The occasion, of course, was one that demanded some ceremonial platitudes. Mr. Andropov had not yet been buried and Mr. Chernenko had just been selected General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, and the theme of speeches on such occasions is invariably the unity, strength and inevitable triumph of the party. But Mr. Chernenko's remarks fit neatly into the pattern of all his major pronouncements since he came to prominence as Leonid I. Brezhnev's closest ally on the Politburo.

CONTRARY to a popular legend that has given comfort to countless slow starters, young Albert Einstein was remarkably gifted in mathematics, algebra and physics, academic records recently acquired from Swiss archives show. The records, contained in a collection of the great theorist's papers now being prepared for publication at Princeton, confirm that Einstein was a child prodigy, conversant in college physics before he was 11 years old, a ''brilliant'' violin player who got high marks in Latin and Greek. But his inability to master French was the bane of his school days, and may have been chiefly responsible for his failing college entrance examinations. The documents ''place Einstein in the context of his times much more than in the past, providing details of his education in Germany and Switzerland and his more human contacts,'' said Dr. John Stachel, editor of the papers. A prime objective of Princeton University Press, which plans to publish the first volume of the Einstein papers in 1985 after years of controversy and lawsuits, is to seek out the roots of Einstein's sudden penetration to a deeper understanding of nature. The series may run to 38 volumes when complete.

THE mother spoke encouragingly as her blindfolded young son tried to stack a pile of blocks. When time was up, she said, ''Next time try for six blocks.'' Another mother whose son was also taking part in the experiment said, ''Next time go a little faster.'' In both cases, the sons had previously been classified as showing typical Type A behavior: competitive, impatient and aggressive. The mothers' responses to the children's efforts seemed to encourage this ever-striving approach to life, which in adults has been linked to an increased risk of developing heart disease. The way mothers interact with children is one of several recently studied factors that are shedding light on the origins and development of coronary-prone Type A behavior. The findings are expected to produce guidelines for discouraging the expression of the more destructive aspects of Type A behavior as well as for treating those already afflicted.