What was going on when I was born?

Because of an editing error, an art review in Weekend last Friday, of the show ''Abstract Painting and Sculpture in America, 1927-44'' at the Whitney Museum, incorrectly characterized the sculptor Theodore Roszak. He should have appeared in a list of well-known artists.

The Soviet Union and the United States are expected to initial an agreement in the next few days to modernize the existing hot line for crisis communications between the two governments. Administration officials and foreign diplomats said the accord was part of an expanding agenda of nonpolitical discussions between the two sides. In coming weeks, the sources said, talks will resume on the Soviet-United States boundary in the Bering Sea, on Soviet fishing rights in American waters and on cultural exchanges. While Soviet diplomats appear to be playing down the discussions as minor and technical, both sides recognize the broader implications. It is understood on both sides that the Reagan Administration will use the increased activity to argue that the Kremlin is prepared to work with President Reagan, contrary to Democratic accusations.

Companies Manufacturers Hanover's problems loans to Argentina reduced the big bank's second-quarter profits, as expected. Earnings fell 8.5 percent to $73.7 million. Other major banks with loan exposure in Latin America managed to report higher earnings. Chemical Bank's were up 10.2 percent, to $76.8 million; Marine Midland's rose 12.3 percent, to $26.4 million, and Irving Trust's climbed 10.5 percent, to $26.3 million. Profits at Interfirst of Dallas, hurt by bad energy and real estate loans, fell 57.9 percent. (Page D1.) Teledyne's profits rose almost fivefold to $355.7 million, reflecting the sale of major stock holdings. (D4.) United Technologies earnings increased 21 percent. (D4.) Westinghouse gained 32.9 percent, and Intel said its profits more than doubled. (D15.)

Though only in its fifth year, Pepsico Summerfare, the monthlong performing- arts festival at the State University's Purchase, N.Y., campus, has already established itself as an innovative cultural melting pot. This year's festival, which opens tonight and continues through Aug. 12, will offer more than 140 events, from free jazz concerts to internationally acclaimed theater. This weekend there's something for almost every taste - Anthony Newman playing Bach, zarzuela from Spain, performance art from Australia, cabaret, storytelling, children's opera and free rhythm-and-blues and steel-band concerts - on the campus, which is 25 miles north of Manhattan. The dominant focus this season will be appearances by highly regarded foreign companies, some straight from the Olympic Arts Festival in Los Angeles. Sankai Juku, Japan's modern-dance company, will make its East Coast debut next Friday. Founded seven years ago under the direction of Ushio Amagatsu, Sankai Juku has developed the, antitraditional style of dance called buto in which dancers with shaved heads and chalk-covered bodies resemble powerful moving sculpture.

A headline in some copies of Sports Pages yesterday on an article about exacta betting misstated the racing board's role. The board is being asked to approve additional exacta races.

Remarks by candidates, page A8. ST. PAUL, July 12 - Walter F. Mondale today named Representative Geraldine A. Ferraro of Queens as his running mate, the first woman selected to run for Vice President on a major party ticket. Mr. Mondale, the probable Democratic Presidential nominee, announced his historic step before an ebullient crowd at the State Capitol. He introduced Mrs. Ferraro by saying: ''I looked for the best Vice President and I found her in Gerry Ferraro.'' ''This is an exciting choice,'' he said, with Mrs. Ferraro by his side.

Although Peter Kiewit Sons' Inc. is not well known around the nation, the construction and mining company is the stuff of legend in this agribusiness center along the Missouri River. On June 29 the company announced plans to acquire the Continental Group, a diversified packaging company based in Stamford, Conn., in a $2.8 billion deal. It would be the first major diversification for Kiewit, which was founded here one hundred years ago as a brick manufacturing concern. The founder, Peter Kiewit, was the son of a poor Dutch immigrant. His youngest son, also named Peter, took over the company in 1931 and built it into one of North America's largest construction companies. In doing so, the younger Kiewit, who dropped out of college to join the company, became a millionaire hundreds of times over.

With luck, a soft breeze will ruffle T-shirts and summer dresses this weekend as listeners in parks across the city settle back on benches, blankets and folding chairs to listen to free concerts of Strauss waltzes and other standbys of the band repertory, jazz and blues, Puccini and Gershwin. As for the musicians involved, orchestras, chorales and bands will leave behind the acoustics of the concert hall to brave the competition of planes, rumbling buses, shrieking sirens, insects and gusts of wind that blow away sheet music. One of those music makers, Martin Josman, director of the National Chorale, will make the exchange of sites happily. ''You come closer to the pulse of the city performing outdoors,'' he said the other day. ''Every now and then a plane goes by, or a siren,'' Mr. Josman allowed, ''but I think Gershwin would have enjoyed it. You remember his 'American in Paris' with all the horns.''

''Vice President - it has such a nice ring to it.'' - Representative Geraldine A. Ferraro. (A8:1.)

Democratic leaders today greeted Walter F. Mondale's choice of a woman as his running mate as a bold attempt to reshape his political image and to fire up what some feared would become a humdrum, almost hopeless challenge against President Reagan. By proposing Representative Geraldine A. Ferraro of Queens as the first woman to be nominated by a major party, they said, Mr. Mondale had acquired a political partner whose background and policies seemed tailor-made for offsetting Mr. Reagan's strengths. But for a likely Presidential nominee whose career has been characterized by cautious weighing of odds, Mr. Mondale's decision also represented a gamble that the choice would win more votes among younger women than it would lose among middle-aged men. Votes from these two groups are most likely to be swayed, polls indicate.

Most prominent Democrats said the choice of Geraldine A. Ferraro would help the party in November.

Representatives of the American steel industry, eager to win the protection against imports recommended by the International Trade Commission, today applauded the agency's proposal to make such protection dependent on industry efforts to modernize. Companies such as the United States Steel Corporation, the Bethlehem Steel Corporation and the LTV Corporation, owner of the recently merged Jones & Laughlin and Republic Steel operations, said that if the trade barriers were imposed they would plow back into improved production facilities any additional revenues earned as a result. Making import barriers conditional on modernization is not a new idea in the steel business. The industry- backed bill to impose a steel import quota contains such a provision.