What was going on when I was born?

Moscow rejected a U.S. offer to join in talks on banning weapons in outer space, proposed by Moscow this weekend, if other subjects were discussed as well. Soviet leaders said the United States response was ''totally unsatisfactory,'' but the offer to open negotiations in September to prevent ''the militarization of outer space'' remained open. (Page A1, Column 6.) Moscow's rejection was regretted by the Reagan Administration, but it restated its willingness '' to sit down with the Soviets at a meeting in September as the Soviets have proposed.'' The Administration said Moscow had misread the intention of its statement Friday. (A1:6.)

Neither rain nor fog nor gloom of night kept the Mets from playing yesterday, or from breaking their four- game losing streak, which they did by sweeping a doubleheader from the Atlanta Braves by 2-1 and 3-2. While 8,949 fans huddled in Shea Stadium, the Mets drew within one game of first place in the three-way race in the National League's East, and even supplied some touches of history. In the opening game, Ron Darling became the first rookie to win nine games this season, and the first Met starter to win six straight since Tom Seaver did it nine years ago. And in the second game, George Foster hit the 300th home run of his 13-year career. It was his 11th of the season, but his first in three weeks, and Foster for once heard cheering instead of booing as he became the 48th player in baseball history to reach 300.

Takeover fever moved many of the big gainers, and financial woes plagued most of the top losers in an otherwise weak second quarter on the nation's three major stock exchanges. The Dow Jones industrial average, which dropped to a 16-month low in mid-June, managed to close on Friday down just 3 percent from the start of the quarter. Of 4,325 stocks on the three big markets tracked by Media General Inc., however, 2,731 - or 63 percent - lost ground in the quarter. Of the combined top 10 gainers on the New York, American and over- the-counter stock markets, about half benefited from takeover offers or rumors, eight on the New York Stock Exchange alone.

In the second inning, Dan Petry threw a split-fingered fastball and Dave Winfield hit it to right field for a single. In the fourth inning, Petry threw a fastball, and Winfield singled to center. Petry tried a slider in the fifth, and Winfield singled to left. ''He got hits on three of the four pitches I throw,'' Petry, the 10-game winner with the Detroit Tigers, said in admiration. ''The next time up he probably would've gotten a hit on a curve.'' The next time up, Winfield lined a fastball from Doug Bair against the fence in left- center field for a two-run double. ''It was up and in, right where I wanted it,'' Bair explained. ''I threw him the same pitch in Detroit, and he popped it up. But this time he turned on it and got his bat out in front. On pitches like that, most hitters couldn't get their bat out in front.''

The search for intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, a quest that began 25 years ago, is about to enter a new era. The awesome task, which involves scanning hundreds of billions of stars, has so far yielded no clear evidence that life exists beyond Earth. But new discoveries bearing on the probabilities of other civilizations, and new methods of searching for them, are attracting the interest of scientists. Two observatories are now engaged full time in the search, and detectors millions of times more effective than any used before are scheduled to be put into operation this fall. These new experiments represent the first ''systematic search'' by physicists for intelligent life beyond Earth, Dr. Philip Morrison of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said yesterday.

Thousands of weary and frustrated travelers were stranded at Kennedy International Airport yesterday as New Yorkers pumped out from a weekend deluge that dropped four to seven inches of rain on the metropolitan area. As the storm headed out to sea yesterday evening, flooding receded from highways, allowing motorists to reclaim their abandoned cars. Full residential power and subway service were restored, but the Long Island Rail Road said severe flooding would force suspension of all service today between Port Washington, L.I., and Bayside, Queens. Flights Diverted The heaviest rain fell in Queens, shutting Kennedy Airport for eight and a half hours Saturday and disrupting travel plans for thousands of passengers on the busy weekend before the Fourth of July.

''Party leaders are no longer prophets. They are all managers, and your reaction to a manager is different to that of a prophet.''

Judy Goldsmith, president of the National Organization for Women, said today there would probably be a floor fight at the Democratic National Convention if Walter F. Mondale failed to choose a woman as his running mate. If there is a political fight for the Vice-Presidential nomination at the convention, she said, ''there is considerable indication we could win.'' Mrs. Goldsmith made the comments at the organization's annual conference shortly before delegates adopted a resolution calling on members to mobilize support among Democratic convention delegates for placing a woman on the ticket and, ''if necessary,'' for introducing the name of a woman as a nominee from the convention floor. Not Intended as Symbolism Mrs. Goldsmith said such a move would be substantive, not symbolic, and would probably lead to a contest on the convention floor. About 400 members of the women's rights group will be delegates or alternates at the Democratic convention, which opens July 16 in San Francisco.

The Reagan Administration said today that it regretted the apparent negative Soviet response to its offer to discuss all aspects of arms control, including limits on space weapons. It also restated its willingness ''to sit down with the Soviets at a meeting in September as the Soviets have proposed.'' Responding quickly to the latest in a new series of exchanges with the Russians, the Administration contended that the Soviet Union had misread the intention of its statement last Friday. The rapid public back-and-forth between Moscow and Washington on the arms control issues suggested to several Administration officials that the chances were extremely slim that any serious negotiations would emerge.

Sun Banks Inc. of Orlando, Fla., and the Trust Company of Georgia, based in Atlanta, will announce the Southeast's first regional interstate bank merger at a news conference Monday morning, according to a report published in today's issue of The Miami Herald. Sun is the second-largest bank in Florida with assets of $9.2 billion, and Trust Company is Georgia's third- largest with assets of $4.8 billion. Joel R. Wells Jr., president and chief executive officer of Sun, refused to comment today on the report.

Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, in his annual stock-taking of the relationship between the Federal Government and New York State, said yesterday that the state's economy has been shortchanged by shifts in Reagan Administration military spending. ''New York State has not received a share of the defense budget that is proportionate with either our Federal tax burden or our population,'' the Senator said in his eighth annual report. ''Despite some hard-won improvements in defense procurement,'' the New York Democrat said, ''New York's share of total defense spending has remained around 5 percent since 1976.'' He noted that many defense contracts were let on the basis of competitive bidding, but added that ''a huge fraction'' of such outlays were ''directed to specific locations by decisions made within the executive branch.''

Her husband died four years ago, and most of their original neighbors have long since moved to Riverdale, Co-op City or the suburbs. But at age 72, Theresa Lato, who says she never considered joining the exodus, is still living in her apartment on the Grand Concourse, the boulevard that was once widely proclaimed as the Champs- Elysees of the Bronx. It was about 20 years ago that Mrs. Lato became alarmed at how badly the garden beside her six-story, brick, palazzo-style building - the Majestic Court - had deteriorated. ''I mentioned it to Ray, the elevator operator,'' she said. ''He said, 'Oh, they ought to pave it all in.' That shocked me - this dismissal of a once-beautiful garden.'' Mrs. Lato took it upon herself to restore and replant the garden, using her savings to hire gardeners and to purchase trees and flowers. Her devotion was unwavering over the years, despite the apathy of some of neighbors and the vandals who ripped out her wisteria and littered the carefully laid paths with broken glass. And two weeks ago, a jubilant Mrs. Lato presided at a small outdoor party dedicating the new Majestic Court garden in honor of a special occasion that is being celebrated all year long in the Bronx - the 75th anniversary of the opening of the Grand Concourse.