What was going on when I was born?

The Dutch Cabinet voted today to delay a decision on deploying cruise missiles in the Netherlands and to link any deployment to progress in the stalled Soviet-American arms talks. The decision came as President Reagan left on a trip to several European countries during which he is expected to appeal to Moscow for a thaw in the relations. Foreign ministers of the 16 North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries, meeting in Washington earlier this week, restated the alliance's policy of maintaining a strong defense, while staying open to negotiations with the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact. Avoid Cabinet Crisis At a news conference after a one- hour Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers said the Government, evidently to avoid a serious Cabinet crisis, would send a note to Parliament calling for a decision on the stationing of cruise missiles in the Netherlands to be delayed until Nov. 1, 1985.

President Reagan, arriving in the country of his ancestors for the start of his European trip, appealed today for universal recognition of ''the rights of individual liberty'' and for ''tolerance and reconciliation'' among Roman Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. In brief remarks at a wind-blown arrival ceremony at Shannon Airport, Mr. Reagan spoke in general, even sentimental, terms about Ireland and Irish contributions to American and world civilization. But he also warned against ''governments that oppress their citizens, renounce God and prey on their neighbors.''

Eden Pastora Gomez, the Nicaraguan rebel wounded by a bomb, was flown to Venezuela after Costa Rica asked him to leave. Page 3. MANAGUA, Nicaragua, June 1 - Secretary of State George P. Shultz made an unexpected visit to leaders of the Sandinista Government tonight and later said ''constructive'' discussions had resulted in the decision to pursue additional talks. ''President Reagan sent me here to Central America on a mission of peace,'' Mr. Shultz said after emerging from a private meeting of more than two hours with Daniel Ortega Saavedra, coordinator of the Nicaraguan junta.

After months of negotiations, two feuding trade associations in the drug industry have endorsed compromise legislation that could double the number of cheaper generic drugs on the market over the next three to five years and cut the cost of many popular drugs in half or more. The legislation would provide for the speedier introduction of many lower- cost generic drugs in return for extending the term of the patents of many higher- priced brand-name drugs. Wider availability of low-cost generics could save consumers about $1 billion in drug costs over the next dozen years, according to estimates by the Food and Drug Administration. Hopes for Passage Rise The agreement is expected to heighten the chances for Congressional approval of a bill that has long been bottled up by bitter disputes between the large companies that manufacture brand-name drugs and the smaller companies that make generic copies of the brand-name products. But a powerful minority of the brand-name industry remains opposed to the compromise and still might work against it.

Three Transit Authority police officers were arrested yesterday on an indictment charging them with manslaughter in the death of a 25- year-old Brooklyn man who prosecutors said had died after a police beating. Other officers may have been involved in the death, although they were not indicted, according to District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau of Manhattan. Prominent blacks have charged that the death of the man, Michael Stewart, a black seized for scrawling graffiti in a subway station, was racially motivated. The officers who were indicted are white.

The writer of this dispatch covered the Allied landings in Normandy in 1944 for The New York Times and has been military correspondent for The Times since 1970. ST.-LAURENT-SUR-MER, France, June 1 - ''It wasn't anything like this, Emily, nothing at all,'' a Canadian veteran of the battle of Normandy shouted to his wife today over the wind that swept in from the Channel. The beaches of Normandy lie mostly empty now. From the beaches on the east, where the British landed, to Omaha, below this hamlet, and Utah on the west, where Americans battled their way ashore, there are few scars of war. There is little to bear witness to the largest and most successful amphibious invasion in history - the Allied landings of June 6, 1944, under the command of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower.

The Security Council today adopted an Arab-sponsored resolution condemning Iran's attacks on commercial shipping in the Persian Gulf. The Council's action, which was approved by 13 to 0 with Nicaragua and Zimbabwe abstaining, was a compromise between a group of Persian Gulf countries, led by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and several third world members of the Council. The third world group tried in long negotiations to soften the anti-Iranian tone of the Arab position. In the principal concession made to the third world group, the text did not condemn Iran by name. It ''condemns attacks on commercial ships in the gulf region and in particular the recent attacks on ships en route to and from ports of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.'' The resolution is directed at Iran, which was accused by the six countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council of carrying out such attacks.

The nation's unemployment rate, which dropped rapidly in 1983 and then remained unchanged in February, March and April, fell three-tenths of a point in May, to 7.4 percent, the Labor Department reported today. The May figures showed broadly distributed gains in employment. with reduced jobless rates for all major categories: adult men, adult women, teen- agers, whites, blacks and Hispanic workers. For the first time, more than half of all adult women in the country held jobs last month. The report said 50.5 percent of women aged 20 and older held jobs. That ratio has been creeping up, reflecting a long-term trend. For men, the May ratio was 74.8 percent.

The descendants of Zulus who received farmland in 1904 from King Edward VII have petitioned Queen Elizabeth II to help them keep their land, saying the South African authorities plan to evict them summarily in the near future. The petition - along with a similar letter addressed to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher - has evidently been timed to coincide with a visit to London on Saturday by Prime Minister P. W. Botha of South Africa. Mr. Botha is to meet Mrs. Thatcher during an eight-nation tour of Western Europe designed to lessen the international isolation of his racially-split nation. The tradition of seeking help from far-distant sovereigns is one that harks back to the Victorian days of British colonialism, when a group or tribe might seek imperial protection in the face of a threat from others. For the people of Kwa Ngema, a hamlet in South Africa's eastern Transvaal region, however, their petition reflects the more modern reality of Government policies under which black people living in areas deemed to be reserved for whites are moved to other places, often less attractive, that are set aside for blacks.

Eden Pastora Gomez, the anti-Sandinista leader who was wounded in a bomb attack on his jungle headquarters in Nicaragua on Wednesday night, was flown from Costa Rica to Venezuela today aboard a hospital plane sent by the Venezuelan Government. Costa Rican leaders, who had asked him to leave the country, gave no indication if he would be welcome to return when he recovers from his injuries. As he left, Mr. Pastora blamed the Central Intelligence Agency for the explosion that killed several of his soldiers in addition to two journalists. On Thursday he said he believed the Sandinista Government in Managua was responsible.

Jose Napoleon Duarte was inaugurated as President of El Salvador today. In his inaugural address, he called on Salvadorans to unite in a social pact to achieve peace and promised to ''fight openly to control abuses of authority and the violence of the extremes.'' ''Today, a light kindles in the long night of horror that El Salvador has lived in,'' said Mr. Duarte, who became the country's first popularly elected civilian President in more than 50 years. ''No one, because I will not permit it, will say that this Government has violated the fundamental rights of my people.''

Pope John Paul II urged today that research to find a cure for leprosy be increased. Speaking in the Vatican to 25 scientists at a seminar on the disease, he said millions of lepers are ''still condemned to a sort of civil death.''