What was going on when I was born?

The national wildlife refuges, islands of natural shelter for birds and animals in a sea of human development, are coming under increasing assault. Some refuge managers and staff as well as conservationists interviewed in recent weeks said policies of the Reagan Administration's Interior Department, such as those encouraging expanded economic and public use of the refuges, were loosening protection of the National Wildlife Refuge System. But Interior Department officials said they were serving the needs and desires of the public without compromising the system's primary function of protecting wildlife. Human Pressures Cited Virtually all experts interviewed, including critics of the Interior Department's policies, agreed that the most serious dangers to the refuges stemmed not so much from the policies of any single Administration as from the inexorable pressures of human activity. These pressures include urban and agricultural expansion, polluted air and water, toxic waste dumps, and highway construction as well as the recreational needs of a swelling human population. All are exacting a toll on the refuges' ability to sustain the millions of waterfowl, mammals, reptiles and aquatic creatures now sheltered within the somewhat fragile boundaries of the refuges.

A year ago the leaders of seven major industrial democracies met in the restored colonial village of Williamsburg, Va., for three days of cloistered discussions. At the end they arrayed themselves on the world stage, before a sea of television cameras and journalists, and issued a communique promising a stronger world economy. The economy has indeed improved. But with the intractable debts of the developing world, spreading protectionism in trade, stubbornly high unemployment in Europe and Canada and the high-valued dollar, it has turned out to be a vastly more troubled economy than the leaders envisioned. ''Their promises were meaningless,'' said C. Fred Bergsten, director of the Institute for International Economics in Washington and the Treasury's principal summit planner in the Carter Administration. ''They did nothing to follow them up.''

The United States has sent 400 Stinger antiaircraft missiles to Saudi Arabia, which plans to establish a protected zone for shipping along the western coast of the Persian Gulf, Administration officials said today. The officials said the Stinger missiles, along with 200 missile launchers, could be used to protect shipping, Saudi oilfields and important installations such as desalinization plants. Defense Department officials said the missiles would not arrive in Saudi Arabia until an announcement by President Reagan, which is expected Tuesday. Setting up the zone and defending it from Iranian aircraft or warships, officials said, will be the responsibility of Saudi Arabia and its allies in the Gulf Cooperation Council and will require only minimal United States support. Safety Zone in South The Saudis' concern has grown out of recent Iranian air attacks on neutral shipping near Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The attacks were in response to Iraq's hitting ships near Iran's main oil terminal in the northern gulf. Saudi Arabia and the other gulf states support Iraq in its nearly four-year-old war with Iran, a non-Arab country.

It was March 20, the second day of tryouts for ''Anything Goes,'' and Alan Lehrman, the drama teacher, was narrowing the field. ''Don't read any special significance into it, if I ask you to read for a particular part,'' he said. Well, of course, everyone read special significance into everything. Marisa Peluso worried that the choreographer watched only when she made mistakes. And Michelle Lebow was a basket case because she wasn't grouped with Sandy Sternlieb and the other fast-tapping seniors.

Paul Koepff joined Davis, Polk & Wardwell in 1973 fresh out of Duke Law School, expecting, like most of the other first-year associates, to work hard and ultimately become a partner in the firm. But three years ago, Mr. Koepff was told he would not be invited to join the partnership. ''When you come to a large Wall Street firm, you know not everyone makes it, not even everyone who's good,'' he said. ''But I thought I had a good shot at it. I thought that right up until I didn't make it.''

The Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company, the troubled Chicago bank, said yesterday that it was trying to woo back individual depositors by offering to repay the penalties they had suffered when they withdrew their funds in the recent run on the bank. In an unusual move in an effort to improve its condition, Continental sent a letter to more than 150 depositors saying that ''as an accommodation to'' customers who suffered a financial penalty as a result of an early withdrawal on an investment certificate, it would repay the penalties to those customers who reopen investment certificates. Normally, the early withdrawal penalty comes to several months' interest. The letter was addressed to former holders of certificates of deposits, who were among the depositors who participated in the run that followed rumors that Continental, the nation's eighth-largest and the Middle West's largest bank, was about to fail. These certificates, a bank spokesman said, could have ranged from $2,500 to millions of dollars.

Governor Cuomo has mounted the strongest lobbying campaign of his administration to try to persuade legislators to raise New York State's drinking age to 21 from 19. The bill to increase the drinking age is expected to be brought up for debate Tuesday on the floor of the Assembly, followed by a vote on the measure. The Governor has appeared throughout the state to push the plan. His commissioners have sought to rally constituent groups. His staff has buttonholed legislators and worked closely with private groups that support the increase.

Bill Marro, a manufacturing representative for a small company in the Boston area, sat contentedly in a red seat at a New York Air gate at La Guardia Airport waiting to catch the shuttle to return to Boston. He could have flown on Eastern Airlines, which offered the only shuttle service on the route until New York Air entered the battle on April 29 with 15 daily flights. Instead, he opted for a flight with a few frills. ''It's a great alternative to Eastern,'' Mr. Marro said of New York Air. ''I'll make them the first choice.''

An article about Reuters news service in Business Day yesterday incorrectly reported the company's pretax earnings for 1983. They were $76.5 million.

His voice choking with emotion, President Reagan led the nation in a state funeral today for the only American known to have perished in the Vietnam War who is still unidentified. Under gray skies, which occasionally dripped with rain, the unknown Vietnam casualty was pulled on a black caisson along a crowded seven-mile route from the Capitol and, 11 years after the war ended, was interred in the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery. Awarded Medal of Honor The serviceman, whom Mr. Reagan awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military decoration, now lies in a crypt near unknown servicemen from the two World Wars and the Korean War. They had been awarded Medals of Honor by other Presidents. ''The unknown soldier who has returned to us today and whom we lay to rest is symbolic of all our missing sons,'' the President said in his eulogy. In Vietnam, 58,012 United States servicemen died.

AT least twice each school day, Amber Tatro, a second grader in Irving, Tex., leaves the classroom and spends 5 to 10 minutes with a nurse who inserts a catheter into her urethra to drain the child's bladder. Amber, who is 8 years old, wears braces on her legs and walks only with the aid of crutches. She has spina bifida, a congential defect in which the walls of her spinal canal are improperly formed and some bodily functions are impaired. Unable to urinate voluntarily as a result of impaired nerve function to the bladder, she would suffer infection without regular catheterization.

AFTER the birth of their daughter three years ago, Charles and Marilyn Cox of Mason, Mich., agreed that they wanted one more child and that it was to be a boy. The David Delapines in Concord, Calif., had arrived at the same conclusion. They also wanted a boy. Susan Fredricks and her husband in Philadelphia decided on a girl because they already had two boys. ''Besides, I'm from a family that had four girls and I really felt that my own family would be incomplete without one,'' Mrs. Fredricks said.