What was going on when I was born?

''Society is pressed to its ancient defense against the violent criminal: the fear of swift and severe punishment.

Fueled by increased production and sales, first-quarter corporate profits in most industries jumped from last year's levels. The higher-than-expected earnings spread across many sectors of the economy, reflecting a broad recovery. The biggest leaps were made in industries that benefit from increased consumer and capital spending, such as automobiles, paper products, aluminum, communications, publishing, instruments, construction and home appliances. Some companies also did well in the office equipment and consumer electronics industries.

MONDAY, APRIL 23, 1984 The Economy Corporate profits soared in the first quarter. Unexpectedly heavy consumer spending and outlays for capital goods resulted in profit gains across a broad spectrum of industries. (Page D1.)

The Mead Corporation, while not neglecting its main business of paper and forest products, is keeping a sharp eye on the home computer market through its Mead Data Central division. Mead Data, which last year contributed only a speck of the overall company's $2.4 billion in revenues, oversees two information retrieval services: Lexis, used primarily by lawyers to research court decisions, and Nexis, used by others to research information published by magazines and newspapers. The outlook for Mead Data brightened late last year when it announced that its system could be used in conjunction with personal computers made by the International Business Machines Corporation. This development allows Mead Data to benefit from growth of the home computer industry. When a user calls up information on a home terminal, Mead will rack up a sale.

There were distinct winners and losers among the nation's largest banks during the first quarter as at least one reported record profits, while others did quite poorly. On the plus side, most banks benefited from higher fee income, especially on consumer business, and from higher volume of earning assets. On the negative side, the banks continued to struggle with mountains of problem loans, both international and domestic. But some analysts saw reasons for optimism because the banks seemed finally to be emerging from the depths of the recession. Although their provisions for loan losses remained fairly high, actual loan charge-offs were dropping at most banks.

Britain announced tonight that it had broken diplomatic relations with Libya and ordered the occupants of the Libyan Embassy here to leave the country by next Sunday. The Government acted after the Libyan Government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi refused to cooperate in an inquiry into the shooting outside the embassy last Tuesday in which a British police constable was killed and 10 demonstrators were wounded. British officials said embassy occupants would be guaranteed safe passage out of the country. This could include a gunman responsible for the burst of submachine-gun fire that killed Constable Yvonne Fletcher, who was monitoring a demonstration by anti-Qaddafi Libyans protesting the hanging of two students in Tripoli.

The handling of the profit-sharing plan for employees of Carter Hawley Hale Stores Inc. is being studied by the Labor Department for possible violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, it has been learned. The plan owns an 18.5 percent block of shares that may determine whether The Limited Inc. succeeds in acquiring Carter Hawley. Gloria Della, a Labor Department spokesman in Washington, said, ''We are looking at Carter Hawley Hale to see if there are Erisa violations.'' She would not state what the possible violations might be. But according to financial sources in New York, they may involve a letter dated April 15 that was sent by the Bank of America to participants in the plan.

KEVIN DUPONT A new request arrives each day with the mailman. One fan writes with good wishes: Dear Mr. Flatley, could you please send me an autographed picture? And good luck to you and the Islanders in the playoffs. Your friend. Another writes from the heart: Dear Mr. LaFontaine, I hope everything is going well for you now that you're with your new team. And, if it isn't too much trouble, do you think you could be my date for the high school prom? Please write back soon. ''Oh, yeah, I've had quite a few of those,'' said Pat LaFontaine, who less than a year ago was a high school senior himself. ''In fact, for a while there, Flats was saying that people wrote him only to say good luck, but girls were writing me to marry them. But I've seen some of his mail lately. They're proposing to him now, too.''

An article April 10 about Representative Geraldine A. Ferraro of Queens misidentified the college of which she is a graduate. It is Marymount Manhattan College.

New York State's largest organization of judges has called on its members to send to prison anyone convicted of a serious crime even if there is not enough space. In a formal resolution to be officially released today, the group - the Federation of New York State Judges - declared that with crime remaining at high levels in the state, judges can no longer afford to take the shortage of prison space into account when they mete out sentences. The state's prison system now houses more than 32,000 inmates - 116 percent of capacity. The streets of New York have become ''lawless marches of robbers, rapists and felons of every kind,'' in part because of a ''true and common perception of a failing criminal-justice system,'' the resolution said. The organization represents more than 2,000 judges, including those in State Supreme Court, Criminal Court, Family Court and the four Appellate Divisions of the Supreme Court.

The Pentagon is now in a position to assume a combat role in Central America should President Reagan give the order, in the view of military specialists and members of Congress. They say the Defense Department has achieved this state of readiness over the last year through the coordinated buildup of United States forces in the region and construction of new military installations. ''What has been set up is a forward base structure that enables the U.S. South Command in Panama to act quickly if they have to,'' said Edward L. King, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who formerly served as liaison for the Joint Chiefs of Staff with the Inter-American Defense Board. U.S. Involvement Deepened ''Now.'' he said, ''they can operate in Central America without having to operate out of Panama, which goes against the political grain of the Panamanian Government.'' The President and Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger have both said repeatedly they had no plans to send United States soldiers to fight a war in El Salvador or Nicaragua. But over the last year the guerrilla forces in El Salvador have increased their strength and scale of operation, holding off the Salvadoran Army and pushing the United States toward deeper involvement.

Finding a company to purchase an annuity from without worry of risk might well seem an elusive quest in light of the financial problems surrounding two of the leading issuers of a popular type of retirement policy - the single-premium deferred annuity. Despite concerns over the safety of this type of annuity raised by the Charter Company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing last Friday and the Baldwin-United Corporation's filing last year, there are ways for individuals to ferret out insurance companies with a long history of financial strength. And there are steps individuals can take to bail out of an annuity contract with minimum financial loss if the policy appears endangered by a company's deteriorating financial condition. The Charter reorganization filing mainly involves its oil refinery operations. The bankruptcy action does not include Charter's insurance subsidiaries, which sold $4.6 billion in deferred annuity policies to about 175,000 people.