What was going on when I was born?

Evidence of widespread abuse - including the beating of mentally ill patients with blackjacks and bamboo poles - has been uncovered in a special ward of the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens, according to state investigators. A beating by a therapy aide, they say, may have led to the death of a 39- year-old patient in the ward last month while in a straitjacket. The ward, the so-called secure unit, houses the center's most violent patients. The patient, Roberto Venegas, died of asphyxiation after his throat was crushed. More Supervision Called For Investigators for a state commission say staff members on the ward have told them that patients were beaten, sometimes with weapons.

Negotiations are going ''very well'' between the United States and Japan on ways to promote the use of the yen in international transactions, Treasury Secretary Donald T. Regan said today. Mr. Regan told a news conference here that he was ''reasonably confident'' that finance officials of the two countries would be able to agree on a draft proposal within a week. Mr. Regan, who spoke at American University after receiving an honorary doctor of laws degree, offered no details. Treasury officials said later that no details were available because the chief American negotiator, Beryl W. Sprinkel, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Monetary Affairs, was on his way back from several days of talks in Tokyo. Mr. Regan said Mr. Sprinkel had called him from Honolulu on Saturday with an optimistic report.

Too much Larry Bird and not enough Bernard King were the reasons the Knicks' season ended today. Bird scored his career playoff high of 39 points and King had 24, and the 15-point difference was virtually the difference in the Boston Celtics' 121- 104 victory at Boston Garden that advanced the Boston Celtics into the Eastern Conference final. The Celtics, who won all four games on their home court in this series, begin a four-of-seven playoff against the Milwaukee Bucks here Tuesday night. ''New York's m.v.p. won it for the Knicks Friday night in New York and the N.B.A.'s m.v.p. won it for us today,'' said Kevin McHale, one of the many Celtics who hounded and double- and triple-teamed King into an 8-for-17 shooting performance.

''I had the feeling that before it was too late I should come back to give what I have to give to a whole young generation of Chileans who have never heard me play in person.

Every overseas bank that sets up shop in New York faces the same choice as other immigrants - whether to shed or retain roots from abroad. Some of the large international banks have chosen to assimilate. But the Bank Leumi Trust Company of New York, whose parent company is one of Israel's largest banks, has followed the other path, appealing to ethnic ties with Israel. To spread the word, Bank Leumi, which has $3 billion in assets, has embarked on a $1 million advertising campaign that is meant to reach out to American Jews without excluding other potential customers.

BOSTON W ITH the Celtics leading, 34-26, late in the first quarter yesterday, the Boston Garden public-address announcer intoned, ''Will the Knicks' bus driver please report to the East lobby.'' The Knicks could have reported to the East lobby, too. For all practical purposes, their decisive seventh game of the Eastern Conference semifinal series was over. So was their season. And so, perhaps, was Leonard (Truck) Robinson's career with the Knicks. In the 121-104 loss, Bernard King scored 24 points, but he had only 9 in the first half when the game was being decided.