What was going on when I was born?

The Dominican Republic suspended negotiations with the International Monetary Fund on Thursday after rejecting demands that gasoline prices be raised 50 percent, Dominican officials said today. A spokesman for President Salvador Jorge Blanco said the Government made the moves because it feared that a gasoline price increase would set off more violence in the country. Increases of up to 200 percent in the prices of some foods and most imported goods in late April resulted in three days of street riots that left about 60 people dead and hundreds injured. Some Latin American leaders said the violence was evidence that tough austerity conditions being demanded by the monetary fund in return for financial help had gone beyond the point of social tolerance.

The Sandinista Government announced Thursday night that it would allow opposition parties 12 weeks to wage the first national political campaign since the 1979 guerrilla takeover. But opposition leaders said in a joint statement that they would refuse to take part unless ''laws which violate human rights'' are repealed. ''The calendar really isn't the point,'' said Mario Rappaccioli, a leader of the Democratic Conservative Party. ''If conditions for a free election do not exist, it doesn't matter if they give us two years to campaign.''

Walter F. Mondale was booed by workers as he urged the closing of the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant. Page 8. COLUMBUS, Ohio, May 25 - Walter F. Mondale is winning additional delegates to the Democratic National Convention almost every day because of his strength among party officials and the way the party's rules work to his advantage. Ohio's Democratic leaders, for example, voted Thursday night to fill out their delegation with Mondale supporters, even though Mr. Mondale lost the Ohio Presidential primary on May 8 to Senator Gary Hart.

When it comes to taxis in New York City, there is probably only one thing the industry is agreed on: If it's Friday, 5 P.M. and raining, chances are you are not going to find one. Beyond that there is little consensus - not on whether there should be more taxis, not on what kind, not even on the number of taxis now operating. The debates continue, as do the complaints that some neighborhoods lack service, that some drivers are incapable of finding the Empire State Building, and that some cars appear to double as trash cans. But while a passenger looking for a taxi in New York City still faces a broad assortment of cars - everything from the highly regulated medallion yellow cabs to the sometimes unlicensed and uninsured gypsies - there are some changes in the making. Number of Medallions Limited The number of cab medallions, which are displayed on the hood of vehicles, is strictly limited. Only cabs with the medallions can be painted yellow, and only those cabs are allowed to pick up street hails.

When The Boston Herald's gossip columnist reported that a fancy Boston restaurant had refused to seat former President Jimmy Carter because he was not wearing a coat and necktie, other news organizations found the story too amusing not to print and too innocuous to need verification. The story was inaccurate. This is a study of how it came to be published and then widely repeated around the nation. Not only did the rebuff never happen, according to Carter aides, but neither The Herald nor any other news organization ever called to ask about it before carrying the report. An official at the Copley Plaza, where the restaurant is located, said that something similar did happen, but it was eight years ago.

Felipe Menjivar's brother, Ernesto, a 32-year- old mathematics teacher, disappeared on March 7. Today six Civil Defense guards are in jail in connection with his murder. But many Salvadorans consider it unlikely that anyone will ever be tried in the case. Justice has a way of working differently when it is ''just between Salvadorans,'' said Judge Bernardo Rauda Mucia, who presided in the trial this week of five former national guardsmen in the 1980 slayings of four United States churchwomen. The five defendants were convicted Thursday after a one-day trial. In the United States Congress and among many Americans, the slayings of the churchwomen became symbolic of the slow and uncertain course of Salvadoran justice; nearly four years had elapsed since the crime. But in this country the cases of 1,500 Salvadorans who have disappeared in the last six months are far more typical, as are the roadblocks Felipe Menjivar is facing in trying to solve his brother's murder.

Francisco Franco would have been aghast. As they say in Spanish, he would have ''turned to dust'' at the sights - Russians waving tiny paper Spanish flags at the airport; a banquet at the Kremlin with vodka glasses raised to peace and understanding; the Spanish head of state strolling past the paintings of El Greco and Velazquez and Murillo in the Hermitage, watching astronauts in training at the City of Cosmonauts, laying a wreath to the heroes of the siege of Leningrad. The recent visit of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia to the Soviet Union, the first by a Spanish head of state, dramatized the remarkable fact that less than 10 years after the death of Franco, who hinged his 36-year rule on a ''crusade'' against Communism, his chosen successor was able to tour the land of Communism incarnate. Breaking new political ground is not unusual for Juan Carlos, the 17th reigning monarch of Spain. Since he ascended the throne on Nov. 22, 1975, two days after Franco's death, the tall, handsome King with melancholy eyes has performed impressively on the high wire of Spanish politics where, as one writer put it, no nets are used.

A Greek appeals court today upheld the conviction of a Cypriot journalist for libel and defamation but commuted his sentence to a $1,200 fine and $150 damages. In December a lower court sentenced the journalist, Paul Anastasiades, to two years in jail. In the decision today the two-year term was reduced to 12 months and commuted to the fine and damages.

The academies of science of the United States, Britain, France and Sweden have sent a message to Anatoly P. Alesksandrov, head of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, expressing ''concern and deep feelings regarding the worsening of the state of health'' of Andrei D. Sakharov, the dissident nuclear physicist, and his wife, Yelena G. Bonner. At the same time, Dr. Frank Press, president of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, notified members of the academy that the proposal to revive Soviet-American cooperation in scientific efforts was dependent on the outcome of such appeals.

President Kim Il Sung of North Korea today ended his first visit to the Soviet Union in 20 years amid indications that he might have succeeded in obtaining enhanced Soviet military assistance. Before leaving for Poland and other East European countries, Mr. Kim held a third round of talks with the Soviet leader, Konstantin U. Chernenko, during which the state of the Korean forces appeared to have been a leading topic. A report by Tass, the Soviet press agency, said that ''special emphasis was made on issues of strengthening security in the Far East and in the Pacific Ocean zone.'' Diplomatic reports before Mr. Kim's arrival said one of his priorities would be to win Soviet agreement to provide North Korea with new fighters to replace its aging Soviet-built MIG's, confronted by advanced planes of the United States and South Korean forces.

The remarks, which were contrary to an earlier pledge by a Chinese official, had an immediate effect on the Hong Kong stock market. Within an hour the market index fell 30 points and then rose slightly. The Foreign Ministry and the state- run television news here reported Mr. Deng's remarks, made in a meeting with delegations from British-ruled Hong Kong and Macau, which is Portuguese territory, to governmental meetings in Peking.

The State Department today cited the death in a labor camp of a Ukrainian activist, Oleskiy Tykhy, as a reminder of Soviet mistreatment of dissidents. The State Department deputy spokesman, Alan Romberg, said Mr. Tykhy died this month of ulcers and other ailments exacerbated by harsh conditions at the camp.