What was going on when I was born?

Henry C. Wallich, the Federal Reserve Board's senior governor, denied today that the Fed is considering putting controls on ''nonproductive'' lending - that is, bank loans that companies use to finance takeovers of other companies. Rumors that the Fed might attempt to relieve pressure on interest rates by curbing such lending began circulating in financial markets earlier this week. Markets have been in turmoil in recent weeks because of rising rates and because of the near collapse of the Continental Illinois National Bank of Chicago earlier this month. An Old-Hat Rumor But, Mr. Wallich suggested in an interview, the rumor is pretty well old hat. ''That has come up many times'' in the past, he said. ''But once you get into classifying loans as productive and nonproductive, that quickly becomes a nonproductive activity.''

Revlon Inc. said yesterday that an investor group was trying to put together a leveraged buyout of the giant cosmetics company. While Revlon would not identify the participants, Wall Street executives said one was Martin E. Revson, the company's former executive vice president. They said the price would likely amount to about $50 a share, or a total of about $1.8 billion.

THIS is the time of year when James McCann's suntan is so deep that people think he has just come in from the beach. There is a good chance that he has: Mr. McCann, an insurance broker, keeps a bathing suit, a bottle of suntan lotion and a folding chair in his car trunk so he can sneak away from his Lake Success, L.I., office during the business day and catch some sun. While the last four rainy days have been daunting, in sunny weather many New York-area beaches are crowded with surreptitious sun worshipers like Mr. McCann during the prime midday tanning hours. Unlike their colleagues who are content with snatching a bit of sun during coffee breaks, they want the total experience, so they tell their bosses they are off to a meeting or are suddenly sick and heading home, then spend the next few hours lolling on the sand.

An article by the Associated Press in Metropolitan Report on May 19 about the sentencing of former Councilman Luis A. Olmedo and his co-defendant, Carlos Castellanos, erroneously reported the basis for an appeal by Mr. Castellanos. The appeal will say that a surprise decision by Mr. Olmedo to take the stand damaged Mr. Castellanos's case.

''I lost convincingly, it was a defeat. If governors got everything they wanted, they wouldn't need state legislatures.

Bond prices continued to plummet yesterday, sending yields on 30-year Treasury bonds perilously close to the 14 percent level not seen since late June 1982. ''Buyers are refusing to support the Government,'' said David D. Hale, chief economist at Kemper Financial Services, Chicago. To sell the securities needed to finance the budget deficit, the Treasury has been forced to offer higher and higher interest rates. The most recent example of rising rates on new Treasury securities was yesterday's sale of $6.25 billion of new 13 7/8 percent notes due Aug. 15, 1989. They sold at an average yield of 13.93 percent, up from 11.84 percent at the previous five-year note sale in February. The rate was the highest since 14.01 percent in February 1982.

IN more spacious times when single-family homes were built on rambling grounds, it was taken for granted that the houses' windows would be oriented for sun, light or a special view. However, in densely populated cities, rooms with sunlit windows and views are usually available only at a premium. Instead there are apartments whose single exposure is rarely scenic, or others with living rooms that may be light-filled, but whose dark hallways trail off into courtyard bedrooms. To brighten these dark urban spaces, some architects are now experimenting with unconventional ways to provide natural light. Alyssia Lazin Kapic and her husband, Pavel, bought a 1,000-square-foot space in New York that had been the top floor of a plant that manufactured airplane parts. Essentially the Kapics bought an open shell with a bathroom, which they wanted to transform into a more conventional apartmentlike space. But since the building was in a formerly commercial neighborhood near Union Square, the only light came from a long strip of windows on the north, a center skylight, and two tiny west windows.

In new guidelines for undercover operations, the Internal Revenue Service has forbidden agents to pose as lawyers, doctors, clergymen or reporters unless they obtain specific approval from top officials. John Rankin, acting assistant commissioner for criminal investigations, said in an interview that the I.R.S. had decided to issue ''more restrictive'' guidelines because its use of undercover techniques was growing. The guidelines also require Washington approval if an undercover inquiry is expected to take more than three months or cost more than $10,000. Mr. Rankin said the service's earlier guidelines did not address the question of whether agents could adopt the guises of doctors, clergymen, lawyers or reporters. He said he knew of one active case in which an agent was taking one of those roles.

A front-page caption in some editions yesterday incorrectly identified two winners of a competition to design a memorial in New York City for Vietnam War veterans. William Britt Fellows was at the right and Joseph Ferrandino was beside him.

Several major savings banks in New York are urgently seeking private investors to bolster the banks' capital accounts as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has been increasing pressure to get them to resolve their problems. The F.D.I.C.'s impatience stems from its belief that there is no chance for at least a handful of savings banks to survive as independent organizations and that they should move more quickly to find acceptable partners. This view was strengthened by a report last week from the New York State Banking Department showing that New York's state-chartered savings banks continued to lose money in the first quarter, although slightly less than in the fourth quarter of 1983. The figures showed that the aggregate net operating loss reported by the 22 state-chartered savings banks in New York City dropped to $41.29 million, from $44.07 million in the previous quarter. And it was considerably lower than the $56.08 million loss in last year's first quarter.

The Nicaraguan rebel commander, Eden Pastora Gomez, was seriously wounded in a bomb attack Wednesday that killed three Costa Rican journalists and wounded 20 people, including foreign journalists, a Costa Rican radio reported. Radio Reloj quoted Edmundo Solano, director of Public Security, as having said that a bomb was thrown at Mr. Pastora and a group of journalists near a hamlet called Penta, in southern Nicaragua less than a mile east of San Carlos. Mr. Solano told Radio Reloj, a commercial radio station here, that the bomb seriously wounded Mr. Pastora, who commands the Democratic Revolutionary Alliance, or ARDE, a rebel army based in Costa Rica that is fighting Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista Government. Rebel Commander Wounded The explosion killed three Costa Rican journalists, one identified as Jorge Quiroz Piedra, a television cameraman. The others were not immediately identified.

A front-page photo caption yesterday incorrectly described the vehicles ridden by Maggie Kent and Bruce Ross on Block Island, R.I. They are small motorcycles owned by their riders.