What was going on when I was born?

Soviet and American officials initialed a diplomatic note today upgrading the 21- year-old hot-line link between Moscow and Washington for crisis communications. The new version, to be installed within two years, will speed up word transmissions threefold from the present 64 words a minute. It could also transmit graphics, such as maps showing the disposition of forces, according to a senior Administration official who briefed reporters at the White House today. President Reagan issued a statement describing the agreement as a ''modest but positive step'' toward reducing the risks of nuclear war by ''accident, miscalcuation or misinterpretation.''

A Baghdad dispatch yesterday about American and Soviet support for Iraq misstated the amount of oil Iraq is pumping through its Turkish pipeline. It is about 850,000 barrels a day.

HEALDSBURG, Calif. Knowledgeable wine drinkers want to know more than just the name of the winery when they buy an expensive California wine these days. They want to know the name of the vineyard, too. More and more often, the winery and the vineyard names are not the same. A good California winery may own its vineyards and make its wine only from its own grapes. It may blend its grapes with those of growers it knows and regularly buys from. Or it may have no vineyards and may make its wine only from purchased grapes. If a winery gets a particularly fine batch of grapes from one specific vineyard, it may keep them apart, make a special wine from them and add the vineyard's name to the label. This is called a vineyard-designated wine.

The Democratic National Convention compromised on two critical platform issues today after defeating three proposals by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, including one calling for the elimination of a chief target of his Presidential campaign, the runoff primary. While supporters of Walter F. Mondale were winning the three floor contests, they agreed to compromises on platform planks dealing with affirmative action and the use of American military force abroad, avoiding debates and divisive votes on those sensitive issues. No Defeats for Mondale As a result, all challenges to the platform were turned aside without any recorded defeat for the Mondale convention majority. The Mondale forces defeated the runoff primary plank proposed by the Jackson camp only after Mayor Andrew Young of Atlanta, a Mondale supporter, was nearly booed off the rostrum when he led the debate against the Jackson proposal. Mr. Jackson repeatedly charged in the primary campaign that runoff primaries discriminated against black candidates by diluting black voting strength when a second, or runoffelection occurs under that system.

Stymied in its attempt to find a private solution to the run on Continental Illinois National Bank, a Federal Government agency is preparing to assume liability for its billions of dollars in problem loans. The plan, under which the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation would end up owning at least 80 percent of Continental, was outlined yesterday at a Washington meeting between William M. Isaac, chairman of the F.D.I.C., and a committee of Continental directors, according to sources familiar with the proceedings. The plan, which would severely dilute the equity of existing Continental stockholders, would not immediately involve the expenditure of new cash by the Federal agency. In late May, the F.D.I.C., along with 28 commercial banks, joined in a $7.5 billion rescue plan for Continental, including a $1.5 billion loan by the Federal agency. But that was insufficient to stanch the outflow of deposits.

From the first, there had to be a policy on kissing. ''Mondale can not, whatever he does, kiss her,'' said Patrick H. Caddell, the Democratic poll taker. There was a moment of suspense on this score when Walter F. Mondale and Geraldine A. Ferraro made their first joint appearance in St. Paul last week. They circled each other a bit warily, not sure of the etiquette of the first meeting of the first coed Presidential ticket. ''He looked like a teen-ager on the first date with that 'how in the world do you pin the corsage on her' problem,'' said Robert Squier, a Democratic campaign consultant.

Because of an editing error, a dispatch from San Francisco on Monday about the problems of the Democratic Party misstated the history of Eugene J. McCarthy's 1968 campaign debt. He raised the money to pay it.

Over the objections of the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Treasury Secretary Donald T. Regan has been voicing opposition within the Administration to legislation that would ban ''greenmail'' tactics and ''golden parachute'' contracts as defenses against unfriendly corporate takeovers. The Treasury confirmed today that Secretary Regan had reservations about the legislation. However, a spokesman for Mr. Regan said the Secretary had not made up his mind on the issue. ''We do not have a position finalized,'' said Brien Benson, a Treasury spokesman.

A Federal grand jury today indicted a former vice president of the failed Penn Square Bank on multiple counts of misapplying bank funds, wire fraud and falsifying records. William G. Patterson was the only person named in the 34-count indictment, which came two years after the bank collapsed and shook large financial institutions throughout the nation. As senior vice president, Mr. Patterson headed Penn Square's oil and gas lending operations. Loans made to energy companies caused many of the problems that led to the bank's demise, according to officials of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which is acting as the bank's liquidator.

Walt Disney Productions said today that Jefferies & Company, a brokerage based here, had acquired about 3.5 percent of the company's stock in the last three weeks. The unusual disclosure came hours before Disney announced that its net income for its third quarter more than doubled, to $45.4 million, or $1.23 a share. The company said the increase was due partly to the release of the successful feature film ''Splash'' and the strong showing of the Arvida Corporation, a real estate development concern that Disney recently acquired. Erwin D. Okun, a Disney spokesman, confirmed a statement made earlier in the day to the Dow Jones News Service by Luther Marr, the company's vice president of corporate shareholder relations. Mr. Marr had told the news service that Jefferies & Company has been purchasing Disney stock at the rate ''of about 100,000 shares a day'' since about June 28.

A new French Cabinet is to be formed. Prime Minister Pierre Mauroy and his ministers resigned and President Francois Mitterrand appointed Laurent Fabius, the 37-year- old Industry Minister, as the new Prime Minister. The governing Socialists have faced a succession of economic and political setbacks. (Page A1, Columns 1-2.) Mr. Fabius, an economist and moderate technocrat, is the youngest Prime Minister in modern French history. (A6:1-2.) The 1963 hot-line link for crisis communications between Moscow and Washington will be upgraded under an agreement signed by Soviet and American officials. (A1:1.)

Islamic militants in Teheran are continuing to publish photocopies of secret cablegrams, Government documents and personal papers found when they seized the United States Embassy there on Nov. 4, 1979. And since thousands of pages of sensitive documents are believed to be still in the Iranians' hands, it is possible they will be published for years to come. Seventeen paperback volumes of the papers, titled ''The Spy Nest Documents'' and published in Iran over the last two years, were recently made available to The New York Times. Their contents were authenticated independently. Together with 13 earlier volumes that came to the attention of Western journalists two years ago, they represent one of the most extensive intelligence losses since the United States hurriedly evacuated its embassy in Saigon in 1975. The books, which include translations into Persian, are sold in Teheran bookshops, and some of them have already been been sold out in Iran.