What was going on when I was born?

The Mayor of New Bedford said today that the city was prepared to use eminent domain to buy a local 120-year-old manufacturing operation if that would keep the plant functioning. As far as could be determined, the purchase, if it occurs, would be the first time an American city took over a factory to save jobs. The manufacturer, Morse Cutting Tools, has been owned by Gulf and Western Industries since 1968. But Gulf and Western is cutting back many of its operations and has put the plant up for sale, planning to close it if no buyer is found. Mayor Brian J. Lawler said the company had set a deadline of July 31 for deciding what to do.

The Cole National Corporation said yesterday that it was discussing a deal with Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Company, the leveraged buyout specialists, under which Cole shareholders would receive $39 a share. Analysts estimated that the completed transaction - after deducting debt - could be worth about $290 million, based on the company's 7.9 million common shares outstanding. The stock of the Cleveland-based Cole National, the nation's second- biggest toy retailing chain after Toys ''R'' Us, rose $2.25, to $34, on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday and, after its opening was delayed until 2:51 P.M., advanced another $2.50 yesterday, to close at $36.50.

Fragments of genes from an extinct animal, a relative of the zebra and the horse, have been found and reporoduced in the laboratory, scientists of University of California at Berkely reproted yesterday. They said the gene fragments are the first to be extracted from any vanished animal speceies. The genetic material DNA, was extracted from a scrap of dried muscle tissue found inside the skin of an animal called a quagga, The skin, preserved 140 years ago, had been kept at the mainz Museum of Natural History in West Germany. The species died out about a century ago. Revival of Species is Remote

-known, often misdiagnosed and mistreated infection, is causing a national epidemic of venereal disease. It now far surpasses gonorrhea as the leading cause of sexually transmitted disease in the United States. Chlamydia is afflicting at least 3 million and perhaps as many as 10 million people a year, or 5 times more people than gonorrhea; its incidence is rising with frightening rapidity, and it is leaving hundreds of thousands of women infertile, many of whom never even knew they were afflicted. Although this disease has been causing human infections for hundreds if not thousands of years, a reliable diagnostic test was not developed until the 1960's and the test is still not used by most laboratories, so complete national statistics are not available. However, recent studies at venereal-disease clinics reveal chlamydia to be the nation's fastest growing serious sexually transmitted disease.

A rogue wind ''from out of nowhere'' capsized the sailing ship Marques early Sunday north of Bermuda, leaving 1 crew member dead and 18 missing, just after the crew believed they had successfully weathered an Atlantic storm, the 9 known survivors said yesterday. They said that the sky had cleared when the sudden squall blew their ship onto her side and threw them overboard into a raging sea. With the other 18 crew members below deck, the ship skidded along on her side, then knifed under when her bow fell below a huge wave. She disappeared, they said, in minutes. Earlier reports that the ship was seen awash in 12-foot waves several hours later were unfounded, officials said.

Army troops and Sikh terrorists reportedly clashed in several areas of Punjab today, with casualties on both sides. Heavy fighting was reported between Sikh terrorists inside the holiest shrine of the Sikh religion and security forces outside. The state, where Sikhs are campaigning for greater political autonomy, was virtually sealed off from the rest of the world. An armed cordon has been put around the Sikh shrine, the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The temple has been both the headquarters of the Sikh rebellion and a sanctuary for terrorists.

TUESDAY, JUNE 5, 1984 International Fed Chairman Paul A. Volcker asked banks to assist Mexico by lowering interest rates on its loans and giving it more time for repayment, banking sources said. The recommendation was made at a meeting with leaders of some of the world's largest banks, who were at an international monetary conference. (Page D1.) A plan for the U.S. and Japan to draw down oil stocks in case of a major disruption in the Persian Gulf has been approved by President Reagan, according to a State Department official who said the President would present it at the economic summit talks. (A1.)

The directors of the Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company and its holding company, the Continental Illinois Corporation, agreed to resign if the F.D.I.C. asked them to. The conecssion, disclosed by the holding company in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commision, was part of the agreement under which the bank received an emergency loan of $2 billion from the F.D.I.C. The Chicago bank and its parent corporation also agreed not to resume dividend payments and not to give senior officers long-term employment contracts or large termination bonuses without F.D.I.C. approval, according to the filing, which was made Friday. Alan J. Whitney, a spokesman for the F.D.I.C., said today that the agency had imposed similar restrictions in the past in the rare instances that it has made loans to shaky banks. The most analogous case, Mr. Whitney said, was the agency's arrangement with the First Pennsylvania Bank of Philadelphia, which borrowed $325 million in 1980. The money was repaid last year.

President Reagan has taken to the economic summit meeting a United States plan calling for joint allied action in case of a major oil disruption in the Persian Gulf, a State Department official disclosed today. The plan calls on Europe and Japan to draw on their stocks of crude oil quickly to avoid a sudden shortage in wholesale and retail markets. Such a response might be made without waiting for world oil supplies to fall by 7 percent, the point where the existing oil-sharing agreement administered by the Paris-based International Energy Agency would be activated. The agreement was drafted after the 1973-74 Arab oil embargo.

The Supreme Court, reversing two lower Federal courts, today reinstated a New York law, similar to laws in all 50 states, under which juveniles charged with delinquency may be held before trial to prevent them from committing additional crimes. The 6-to-3 ruling was the first Supreme Court decision on the approach to pretrial confinement often referred to as ''preventive detention.'' Unlike traditional bail statutes, which direct judges to set bail in the amount necessary to insure that a defendant will appear at trial, the preventive detention approach explicitly takes into account the danger that the defendant will commit further crimes while awaiting trial. Because the Court based its ruling today on what the majority considered to be the special position of juveniles in society, the decision does not necessarily mean that the Court would uphold preventive detention for adults.

Paul A. Volcker, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, gave his support today to a plea by the head of the International Monetary Fund that the world's leading banks lower the interest rates they charge on loans to Mexico and give that country more time to repay its debts, according to banking sources. The recommendation came at a closed meeting of the heads of some of the world's largest banks, who are among those attending the annual International Monetary Conference here. Mr. Volcker's position as head of the Federal Reserve system generally goes a long way toward assuring a positive response by bankers to suggestions he might make. In addition, Mexico is well regarded by bankers because it has substantially improved its financial condition, Wriston Cites 'Linkage' In fact, just before the closed meeting was held, Walter B. Wriston, chairman of Citicorp - who has generally opposed concessions to the third-world debtor nations, said at a news conference that ''I believe there is linkage between the spreads and actual performance.'' In other words, if a country performs well, it deserves lower interest rates.

NATO'S possible renunciation of the use of force could be discussed with Moscow if the Kremlin agreed to a specific set of measures to limit the risk of military confrontation in Europe, according to a proposal by President Reagan. In a speech to Ireland's Parliament, Mr. Reagan also said Washington wanted to ''reach out'' to Moscow to reduce world tensions. (Page A1, Column 6.) Little Irish excitement was stirred by President Reagan's three-day visit despite all the preparation and the considerable publicity that preceded it. Almost everywhere, the public response was lukewarm. (A12:1-3.)