What was going on when I was born?

The Federal appeals court here ruled unanimously today that no court had power to order appointment of an independent counsel over the objection of the Attorney General. Acting with unusual speed, eight appelate judges reversed a May 14 decision by Federal District Judge Harold H. Greene ordering Attorney General William French Smith to have an independent counsel investigate how the 1980 Reagan campaign obtained documents from the Carter White House and campaign. ''We are of the conviction,'' the appeals court said, ''that Congress specifically intended in the Ethics in Government Act to preclude judicial review, at the behest of members of the public, of the Attorney General's decisions not to investigate or seek appointment of an independent counsel with respect to officials covered by the Act.'' No Opinion on Evidence In dismissing the case for lack of jurisdiction, the court expressed no opinion on whether there was enough evidence of crimes by high-level officials to warrant appointment of an independent counsel. Mr. Smith has contended there was not.

The basic rent for about 350,000 rent- stabilized apartments in New York City will rise by up to 9 percent under regulations adopted yesterday by the Rent Guidelines Board. The increases, 6 percent for one-year leases and 9 percent for two-year leases, were voted after a typically raucous public hearing at which representatives of landlord and tenant groups waved signs, chanted and screamed obscenties at the board members. The increases are for rent-stabilized apartments with leases that start in the 12-month period beginning Oct. 1. Three-year leases are no longer offered for the city's 950,000 rent-stabilized apartments.

Senator Gary Hart today withdrew his threat to challenge several hundred national convention delegates pledged to Walter F. Mondale and agreed to meet with Mr. Mondale on Tuesday. With the convention three weeks away, the action appeared to resolve one of the last disputes facing the party. Mr. Hart said today that he would continue his fight to win the Presidential nomination but that a challenge on the delegates would ''surely'' splinter the party. ''I will take no part in any action that makes our convention one of divisiveness or rancor,'' he said in a letter to Charles T. Manatt, the Democratic national chairman. The Mondale-Hart meeting, to take place in New York City, was arranged by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, who warmly endorsed Mr. Mondale in St. Paul today. (Page B6.)

The long-awaited first audit of USA Today by the Audit Bureau of Circulations has confirmed that the colorful national newspaper, started by the Gannett Company in 1982, is the nation's third-largest daily newspaper behind The Wall Street Journal and The Daily News. USA Today's average paid circulation in the three-month audit period ending Dec. 31 was 1,138,030, the A.B.C. announced yesterday. It also released an unaudited statement filed by the newspaper's publisher for the first quarter of 1984, claiming average paid circulation of 1,284,613, which would be a 13 percent increase. The audited data drew a positive response from some advertising executives and media analysts.

A Federal indictment charged nine defendants yesterday with a tax-evasion scheme that involved selling ''ministries'' in the Life Science Church to thousands of people, including many police officers in New York City. For a fee of up to $4,400 each, the indictment said, people became ''ministers'' and avoided paying income taxes by claiming that they used their incomes to operate tax-exempt churches. The 19-count indictment, filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan, said the nine defendants accused of heading the operation had obtained almost $10 million in three years and had deprived the Government of millions of dollars in taxes. ''We will proceed with more indictments in the near future,'' United States Attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani said at a news conference. He said a two- year investigation was continuing into the Life Science Church and similar organizations that sold purportedly tax-exempt ministries.

WHY does the Morone saxatilis, or striped bass, linger along the Manhattan bank of the Hudson River on its winter migration from West Point to the sea? Would it survive if it were displaced? Can it be lured to artificial habitats? If so, how? The fate of the Westway, New York City's largest Federally financed public works project, may be riding on the answers to those questions. After public hearings on all aspects of the project today and tomorrow at the Felt Forum, the Army Corps of Engineers will decide whether to permit the state to dredge three million cubic yards of accumulated sludge, or ''fluff,'' from the river bottom and then dump in eight million cubic yards of fill to create 169 acres of new land between the Battery and 42d Street. A six-lane highway would burrow beneath the landfill. A park, housing and commercial development are planned on top.

When Florence and Henry McGann's children were grown, the couple sold their suburban ranch house, bought a two-story saltbox on a concrete barge and moored the floating home at the South Seas Marina here. ''It's paradise,'' Mrs. McGann said while watching an amber sun set behind a forest of bobbing masts. ''You get the feeling that youre on vacation all the time.'' But three years after the McGanns dropped anchor along the South Shore of Nassau County, their two-bedroom floating home and those of their neighbors are the center of a dispute.

The Senate voted 88 to 1 today to delete aid to Nicaraguan rebels from an emergency spending bill to clear the way for $100 million for summer youth jobs. Senator Paula Hawkins, Republican of Florida, cast the only dissenting vote. The move ended a monthlong deadlock with the House of Representatives, which opposed the $21 million in aid being channeled to the insurgents through the Central Intelligence Agency as immoral and counterproductive. The spending bill, for a total of $1.1 billion, now goes to President Reagan, who is expected to sign it.

STUDENTS of journalism and mass communications should get more and better undergraduate training in the liberal arts and less work in vocational skills, according to a model curriculum being proposed after a two-year survey. The proposed curriculum, described in a report last month from a study group of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, parallels ideas advanced in other disciplines, particularly teacher education, to marry improved liberal arts training to a core of instruction in the history and theory of the craft, rather than in its technologies and methods. ''The end goal of our programs should be to make our students more curious about the world rather than self-satisfied that a few writing techniques are all one needs to cope with the complexities of contemporary society,'' said David Eason of the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, a participant in the survey. The model curriculum has been proposed amid a multisided debate about the scope and quality of 300 programs enrolling more than 80,000 undergraduates seeking careers in journalism, advertising and public relations.

Dwindling support for aid to Nicaraguan rebels was evident in the Senate. The Republican-controlled body voted, 88 to 1, to strike out $21 million in aid to the rebels from an emergency spending bill to clear the way for providing $100 million for summer youth jobs. In the face of the Senate action, President Reagan is expected to sign the bill. (Page A1, Col. 6.) Nicaragua's draft is widely opposed. Groups of mothers have protested that their sons have been indiscriminately conscripted since the draft took effect in January and have been cut off from contact with their families and sent to battle without proper training. Interviews conducted in six Nicaraguan provinces over the last two weeks suggest that draft evasion is widespread. (A1:4-5.)

The Securities and Exchange Commission, sending a signal to the accounting profession, today censured three partners of a North Carolina firm that the agency said had knowingly issued questionable auditing reports. The agency, in announcing the censure, issued a strongly worded policy statement cautioning accountants against cooperating with ''opinion shopping'' by clients soliciting the most favorable audit opinion from among a number of firms. ''We're looking for cases like this,'' said L. Glenn Perry, the chief accountant for the S.E.C.'s enforcement division, ''and we have several currently under review. It's one of our top priorities.''

TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 1984 The Economy Major banks increased their prime lending rate to 13 percent, from 12 1/2 percent. The rise was the third since March, and some economists predict further increases, adding that the economic expansion is likely to slow as a result. The trend could also aggravate the international debt crisis. Yesterday's increase brought criticism from Latin America. (Page A1.)