What was going on when I was born?

In a move that signals a go-ahead for regional banking pacts across the United States, the Federal Reserve Board yesterday approved interstate mergers involving two sets of banks in Massachusetts and Connecticut. The proposed mergers are based on laws recently enacted by the two states allowing their banks to merge with others in New England but not with banks elsewhere. Major banks in New York have bitterly opposed regional banking agreements between states, which have the effect of excluding entry by big-city banks. Citicorp has even filed a lawsuit charging that such agreements are unconstitutional on the ground that they discriminate against banks merely because they are based in a particular state.

Bank regulators, in the face of opposition by the Treasury, the Justice Department and large segments of the financial community, acted today to restrict Federal insurance coverage of deposits placed by brokers in the nation's 18,000 federally insured banking institutions. But the regulators, responding to industry complaints, modified their original mid-January proposal to soften the impact. The Federal Home Loan Bank Board, which regulates savings and loan associations, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which regulates commercial and savings banks, approved identical regulations today on brokered deposits. Plan Begins Oct. 1 These changes, effective Oct. 1, will end Federal insurance for all but the first $100,000 deposited by a broker in a single thrift institution or bank. A broker will often break up very large deposits in one bank into individual accounts of $100,000 or less in order to have them covered by Federal insurance.

The Calendar column of the Washington Talk page yesterday incorrectly listed the announcement date for the formation of a Coalition for the Peaceful Uses of Space. The meeting will be held Wednesday at 9:30 A.M. in Room 2325 of the Rayburn House Office Building.

The moderate Christian Democrats and the rightist Nationalist Republican Alliance were leading today in returns from El Salvador's presidential election, according to Salvadoran and United States officials. However, the officials said a runoff election in April or May would probably be necessary because neither the Christian Democratic candidate, Jose Napoleon Duarte, nor Roberto d'Aubuisson, the Nationalist Republican Alliance candidate, appeared likely to win more than 50 percent of the votes. No party seemed ready to challenge the election, despite a voter turnout that officials said had been reduced by some guerrilla disruptions and major confusion about how the new voting system worked. Duarte Said to Be Leading Official returns were not available late today. The United States Ambassador, Thomas R. Pickering, said reports he had received from the different parties indicated that Mr. Duarte had won more than 40 percent of the vote, Mr. d'Aubuisson nearly 30 percent, and Francisco Jose Guerrero, the National Conciliation Party candidate, nearly 20 percent.

The American Telephone and Telegraph Company is expected to announce its long-awaited entry into the computer business at a news conference scheduled for today. A.T.& T. is expected to introduce several versions of its 3B line of computers, some of which are already being sold to the Bell operating companies, which were part of A.T.& T. until the Jan. 1 divestiture. Analysts said A.T.& T. would not plunge immediately into the highly competitive personal computer market, but would start with more expensive multi-user microcomputers and minicomputers selling for $10,000 to several hundred thousand dollars. The stock prices of minicomputer companies plummeted yesterday in response to the announcement of the news conference. Hardest hit was Digital Equipment, which fell $2.875, to $87.50, in active trading. Trading in Digital was halted late yesterday.

Argentina's last-minute negotiations over interest payments due in five days to 330 United States banks shifted today to the seaside gambling resort here where the Inter- American Development Bank has begun its annual meeting. Sources knowledgable about the closed-door sessions between Argentina and the creditor banks said bankers seemed divided over whether an agreement could be reached in time. (Bankers in New York who have been negotiating over the Argentine debt said Monday night they would not be surprised if Argentina failed to meet the deadline for payments. However, they added, because of the loans' structure, the sums in the March 31 deadline are much smaller than those that should be paid by June 30.)

A lengthy cycle of unpublished love poems by William Faulkner, which the author bound by hand in 1921 and presented to his future wife shortly before he abandoned poetry for the novel, will be published on May 26 by the University of Texas Press. The collection of 14 poems, totaling scores of stanzas, is titled ''Vision in Spring.'' Scholars say the publication of the poems could change scholarly perceptions of the author who won the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature. In addition, ''Vision in Spring'' is thought to have been the first book- length work ever submitted for publication by Faulkner. It is also one of the last works of poetry written by Faulkner before he wrote ''Soldiers' Pay,'' his first novel.

TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 1984 The Economy Bank regulators approved curbs on brokered deposits, but allowed two years for banking institutions to reduce their dependence on such funds. The approval came despite opposition by the Treasury and Justice Departments and the banking industry. (Page D1.) The Fed approved interstate mergers among two sets of banks in Massachusetts and Connecticut, signaling a go-ahead for regional banking pacts. Major banks in New York City have strongly opposed such pacts. Citicorp charges that they are unconstitutional because they discriminate on the basis of geography. (D1.)

Because of an editing error, an article and a picture caption Sunday on philanthropies' efforts to reduce the threat of nuclear war misstated McGeorge Bundy's connection with the Ford Foundation. He is a former president.

Some Congressional Democrats, back from observing the presidential elections Sunday in El Salvador, said today that, despite problems, the size of the voter turnout had improved the prospects in Congress for President Reagan's request for more military aid to El Salvador. The United States Embassy estimated that 1.1 million to 1.3 million Salvadorans cast ballots. That is below both the 1.55 million who voted in the 1982 legislative elections and the 1.8 million total that the Salvadoran Government had estimated would vote Sunday. The American delegation met this afternoon with President Reagan. Afterward, both the House majority leader, Jim Wright of Texas, and Senator Walter D. Huddleston of Kentucky said they were more inclined to support additional aid for El Salvador despite having seen firsthand some ''bureaucratic difficulties'' with ballot boxes and voter lists.

It looked like an astute move in 1982 when Phone-Mate Inc., a leading supplier of telephone answering machines, decided to enter the developing market for telephones. But two weeks ago, Phone-Mate realized that phones were not the answer. It announced that it would stick to answering machines and was pulling out of the telephone business, which had dragged the company into a loss of more than $5 million for 1983. Phone-Mate is the first well-known victim of competition and oversupply in the consumer telephone business.

For New York and New Jersey, the Hudson River is more than a common border. These days it is a back-yard fence over which there has been a great deal of shouting. Neighbors and rivals, the Big Apple and what John Gunther called that ''raucous little state'' across the river are engaged in a war of words. But behind the barbs and bombast, the states are vying for some important prizes: billions of dollars in development, thousands of jobs and that illusive but all important commodity: image. The most recent focal point of the war is a $40 million grant from the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to help redevelop the waterfront in Jersey City. New York City officials are contesting the award. The New York Times sent two reporters into theis war. What follows are their reports from behind the lines.