What was going on when I was born?

Beirut was paralyzed today as protesters demanding action to free kidnapped relatives blocked roads and crossing points between the Moslem and Christian sectors. The protests were largely limited to West Beirut, but both Christians and Moslems demonstrated near the crossings. Tonight a group that said it represented the protesting families announced that it would end the blockades, which began Sunday, to give the new Government an opportunity to act on Wednesday, when a Cabinet meeting is scheduled. Today's protests forced the closing of the Beirut International Airport only hours after it had been reopened for the first time in five months.

Unfilled orders for business telephone installations grew 16% in June, A.T.&T. said. Page D6. State utility regulators, overwhelmed by the task of carrying out the breakup of the nationwide Bell telephone system, are slowing the pace of Federal telephone deregulation and demanding more control in its execution. As a result, the quick doubling or tripling of local telephone rates that was predicted when the American Telephone and Telegraph Company got rid of its local operating companies will probably occur much more gradually, if at all. But some of the expected benefits of deregulation, such as lower long-distance rates, may be much slower in coming.

MINNEAPOLISIn sponsoring the report ''A Nation at Risk,'' the Federal Government helped give birth to one of the most extensive debates on public education that the country has seen, a round of discussions that critics of the schools say was overdue. But members of the country's largest teachers' organization, 7,000 of whom gathered here last week for the annual meeting of the National Education Association, are angry and fearful about what they hear being said. They are especially bitter toward the Reagan Administration. They feel that teachers are being unfairly criticized and that some proposed solutions for what ails the schools are ill-founded and a threat to the teaching profession.

New York State employees will conduct drives in motor vehicle offices, unemployment lines and social service offices to register voters in time for the November elections, under an executive order signed today by Governor Cuomo. ''State agencies having frequent contacts with the public should be available to help people wishing to participate fully in the democratic process,'' Mr. Cuomo said. But Republican officials responded that the plan was intended to help Democratic candidates in November, and that services might deteriorate as state employees are diverted to register voters. Governor's Neutrality Questioned ''I frankly don't trust Mario Cuomo to be neutral,'' said George Clark, the Republican state chairman. ''Let the Democratic Party go out there to register Democrats. We'll go out there and register Republicans.''

President Reagan said he did not think the Rev. Jesse Jackson violated the law in arranging for release of prisoners in Cuba. Page A16. By DAVID E. ROSENBAUM Although three-quarters of the blacks who voted in Democratic Presidential primaries this year voted for the Rev. Jesse Jackson, black Democrats prefer Walter F. Mondale to Mr. Jackson as the party's Presidential nominee by a margin of 5 to 3, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll. The poll indicated there would be little effect on the Mondale vote if Mr. Jackson did not support Mr. Mondale in a race against President Reagan in November, a step Mr. Jackson hinted again over the weekend he might take if the party convention did not satisfy him on positions he advocated. Only 4 percent of Jackson supporters indicated they would be less likely to vote for Mr. Mondale or less likely to vote at all if Mr. Jackson did not endorse Mr. Mondale.

Two unions representing 3,900 employees of the Long Island Lighting Company announced yesterday that they would begin a strike at 4 P.M. today. The company said in a statement that its 1,475 management workers would perform ''all essential services'' to maintain gas and electric service, despite recent layoffs. Lilco serves the 2.6 million people in Nassau and Suffolk Counties and 99,000 in the Rockaway peninsula in Queens.

The St. Regis Corporation said yesterday that while Rupert Murdoch, the Australian-born publisher, was saying publicly that he had ''no present intention'' of trying to take over the company, he was secretly negotiating with a group of banks, including the Midland Bank of London, to raise $750 million for a possible acquisition of the big forest products company. The charge came in an affidavit filed by the Manhattan-based company in a 31-page suit in United States District Court in Dallas against Mr. Murdoch and three of his companies. The suit seeks to block any takeover, or further purchases of St. Regis stock, by Mr. Murdoch. In anticipation that Mr. Murdoch would buy more stock, St. Regis shares jumped $2.125 yesterday, to $39.875, in heavy trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Through a number of his own companies, the publisher already has 1.8 million shares, or 5.6 percent of the company.

TUESDAY, JULY 10, 1984 Companies Eastern Airlines touched off a fare war by announcing a major cut in its New York-Florida price. The carrier lowered round-trip fares between New York-area airports and five Florida cities to $198. Delta and Pan Am, Eastern's largest competitors in that market, said they would match the cuts. (Page D1.) A Miami bankrutpcy court ruled that Air Florida could use up to $4 million of its cash to continue operations in hopes of resuming its flights. (D4.) St. Regis said Rupert Murdoch was secretly negotiating with a group of banks, including the Midland Bank of London, to raise $750 million for a possible takeover of the big forest products company. The charge was included in a suit filed by St. Regis to block any takeover effort. Mr. Murdoch, the Australian publisher, has said publicly that he has no current designs on St. Regis. (D1.)

Ever since Freud first proposed that dreams were the ''royal road to the unconscious,'' it has been standard clinical practice to assume that dreams bear meaningful psychological messages, though often in bizarre disguise. In recent years some researchers and neuroscientists, using new, sophisticated techniques for measuring brain activity during sleep, have attacked that understanding. They assert that dreams are essentially mental nonsense that have no psychological significance whatever. Their conclusions have provoked widespread argument in the field because they suggest that all therapeutic uses of dreams may be much less valid than had been thought. But already there are some signs of compromise. Wherever the argument may ultimately lead, the new data and theories even now are prompting some clinicians to modify their understanding of the role of dreams in mental life.

''We intend to restore it.'' - Canon Ralph Mayland of the cathedral of York Minster. (A1:1.)

A fire early this morning severely damaged the ancient cathedral of York Minster, particularly its 13th-century south transept, but authorities said damaged areas would be restored and expressed relief that treasures elsewhere in the church had been spared. The cause of the fire had not been determined, authorities said, but there were indications that it had been started by lightning. The roof of the south transept, the major casualty of the fire, lay in a charred pile today. It had been erected over vaults so broad that medieval masons could not span them with stone.

Because of a mechanical error, George Vecsey's column in some copies of SportsMonday yesterday omitted the last part of a quotation from Carl Hubbell. The last two sentences of the quotation should have read: ''Knowing that, I pitched accordingly. The screwball did the rest.''