What was going on when I was born?

The Kool Jazz Festival, which begins this afternoon at 5 and continues through Sunday, July 1, will be celebrating its 30th anniversary since it started in Newport, R.I. It will also be celebrating the memory of one of the last of a generation of jazz giants who was a constant contributor to the festival - the pianist and orchestra leader Count Basie, who died last April at the age of 79. This year's festival is dedicated to Mr. Basie, who was to appear with his orchestra in a program with many of the musicians who played in his orchestra in the 48 years that he led it. That program, a week from tomorrow at Carnegie Hall, will now take place as a salute to Mr. Basie and will come as a fitting climax to the 10 days of jazz that will be played in his honor. This first weekend of the festival will show that there are still jazz giants among us. In the first three days, festival audiences will hear Miles Davis, Oscar Peterson, Benny Carter, Stan Getz, Sarah Vaughan, Joe Williams, Gil Evans and Stephane Grappelli, as well as such acclaimed newcomers as the guitarist Bireli Lagrene, the pianist Michel Petrucciani and the Brazilian singer and songwriter Djavan.

The investment adviser to the troubled Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company has been circulating a proposal under which the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation would commit more than $4.6 billion in loans and guarantees to entice a buyer for the Chicago bank, according to banking sources. A key element in the innovative and complex proposal is an indication by Goldman, Sachs & Company, the adviser, that Continental's problem loans could amount to about $4 billion, far higher than than the $2.3 billion in nonperforming assets reported by the bank at the end of the first quarter. It thus confirmed market reports that the bank was in worse shape than many had believed. There is no danger to depositors, however, because the F.D.I.C., the Federal agency that insures bank depositors, and the Federal Reserve System have said they will fully protect all Continental's depositors and creditors.

The Greenpoint section of Brooklyn has become more Polish than ever since the imposition of martial law in Poland in 1981. Church and community organizations are flourishing because of new immigrants to an area where Polish food, drink and politics are staples of the busy streets. Residents say Greenpoint has the only chess club in the borough, organized by a group of 20 ardent young chess players who arrived here only a few years ago from Poland. A new clinic has opened, run by two Polish-American doctors who are husband and wife.

Francois Mitterrand and Konstantin U. Chernenko clashed publicly over human rights tonight, with the French President abandoning diplomatic convention to raise the case of Andrei D. Sakharov, the physicist and rights activist, at a Kremlin dinner. At a news conference this morning, meanwhile, a Soviet spokesman, Leonid M. Zamyatin, indicated that Mr. Chernenko, the Soviet leader, was not prepared to meet with President Reagan soon at a summit meeting. Mr. Zamyatin said, ''We see no changes in the position of the United States leading from statements of desire to expression of concrete readiness to raise and solve questions that would be required at a summit meeting.'' Mitterrand Was Warned Mr. Mitterrand spoke tonight after the Soviet leader, in his dinner speech, warned him against raising human rights issues, saying, ''We shall not allow anyone to interfere in our internal affairs.''

Irwin M. Margolies was sentenced yesterday to 50 years to life in prison for the murders of two women in a bungled plot that also led to the death of three CBS technicians. ''There is no more horrible crime than a contract murder,'' said Justice Eve M. Preminger of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, who issued the sentence. She glared at Mr. Margolies, the former owner of a Manhattan diamond company, and said in a crisp, icy tone, ''Nothing in your background calls for sympathy.'' It was, in effect, a life sentence. Under the terms set by Justice Preminger, Mr. Margolies, 49 years old and a diabetic, cannot begin serving the time until after he has completed a 28-year sentence in Federal prison for fraud at the diamond company.

An article in Business Day on Wednesday about a plan by the Edison Electric Institute to help clean up the Three Mile Island nuclear plant incorrectly described a previous plan. Under the previous plan, money from utilities would not be made available until the institute had collected pledges of $100 million from its members.

Mayor Koch blocked an agreement yesterday that would have made some of the city's subway stations accessible to the disabled and permitted the modernization of the city's subways to proceed. The Mayor's decision came as representatives of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Governor's office and a group representing the disabled were discussing aspects of the agreement, which called for installing elevators for the disabled in some stations. Mr. Koch, in a written statement, said, ''I have concluded that it is simply wrong to spend $50 million in the next eight years - and ultimately more - in putting elevators in the subways.'' The Mayor said this had been his original position when the negotiations opened.

House and Senate tax conferees reached agreement on health care and public assistance spending cuts tonight, opening the way for approval of a $50 billion tax increase and a package of spending cuts totaling about $11.2 billion through 1987. The Senate conferees, for their part of this key compromise, also dropped just under $5 billion of tax cuts, including the President's proposed expansion of tax-exempt Individual Retirement Accounts for nonworking spouses. The Senate conferees also killed the extension of several energy tax credits beyond 1985, including the residential credit for installing solar or other alternative energy systems. However, the Senate conferees did not drop the President's proposal for so-called Enterprise Zones, which are intended to attract companies to economically depressed areas with tax breaks.

A French-Soviet verbal clash occurred publicly at a Kremlin banquet. Francois Mitterrand and Konstantin U. Chernenko made conflicting statements about human rights, with the French President abandoning diplomatic convention to raise the case of Andrei D. Sakharov, the physicist and rights activist. Earlier, a Soviet spokesman, Leonid M. Zamyatin, indicated that Mr. Chernenko, the Soviet leader, was not prepared to meet with President Reagan soon. (Page A1, Col. 5.) The President criticized the Kremlin. Mr. Reagan said that Soviet officials ''do not know what they are talking about'' in insisting that his policies were too intransigent to make a summit meeting feasible. (A3:1-2.)

When the American Telephone and Telegraph Company introduces its entry in the personal computer market Tuesday, its biggest task may be to satisfy a horde of skeptics that it has not waded into battle with I.B.M. with the wrong machine at the wrong time. For the last week, pictures and detailed specifications of A.T.& T.'s newest computer, made for the telephone giant by Olivetti, have circulated broadly throughout the industry. While dealers, analysts and some big potential customers - some of whom have seen the machine - say they would hardly dismiss anything bearing the A.T.& T. label, most say they are disappointed that A.T.& T. did not make a bold stroke, a major technological advance that would set its products apart from those offered by the International Business Machines Corporation. ''Their big shot at making it, we thought, was coming out with a machine that was different, a major step forward,'' said David Cook, chief financial officer of the United Personal Computer Corporation, who said he may not carry A.T.& T.'s entry in his 10 Computerland franchises in Connecticut and Massachusetts. He and others note that A.T.& T.'s machine is another slick- looking I.B.M.-compatible computer, although signficantly faster and a little more flexible.

After two years of discussion, a mayoral commission yesterday approved a series of zoning proposals and other incentives aimed at preserving Broadway's 44 legitimate theaters and strengthening the Broadway theater district in general. The 15-member group - the Mayor's Theater Advisory Council - represents theater owners, producers, actors, architects, designers, union members and others dedicated to the preservation of the Broadway theater. It gave final approval to an 84-page report that will be submitted to the City Planning Commission. The proposals would have to be approved by the Planning Commission and the Board of Estimate to become law.

This year, Verna Gillis of Soundscape is again booking the festival's fringe, but the concerts have been moved from Soundscape's 10th Avenue loft to the larger, more accessible, air-conditioned Irving Plaza (477-3728), 17 Irving Place, near Union Square. As with most Gillis projects, the lineup is cross-cultural, with concerts that should also suggest some unexpected connections. ''The idea of the pure jazz festival is over,'' Miss Gillis said the other day. ''All over American and Europe, jazz festivals are turning into music festivals. We're presenting a cross-section of what's happening.''