What was going on when I was born?

''Some men came around the house one day asking for my uncle.

An article in Sports Pages yesterday about a wide receiver for the New York Jets misidentified him. He is Bobby Humphery.

The chairman of the Federal Reserve Board said today that the nation's central bank, at its policy meeting last week, decided not to tighten its monetary policy, a move that was welcomed by Wall Street and could mean that interest rates will hold steady, instead of rising, for the next several months. Testifying before the Senate Banking Committee, Paul A. Volcker, the Fed chairman, would not predict whether interest rates will fall later this year, although he said he expects the current rapid pace of expansion to slow down in the last half of the year. If the economy continues to grow rapidly, he said that rates could rise. Investors responded positively to Mr. Volcker's statements. Note and bond prices rose and interest rates showed a sharp decline on the news, and the reaction spilled over to the corporate and tax-exempt markets. (Page D16.)

Even though President Reagan appeared to deny Tuesday night that he would raise taxes next year, the chief Republican voice on tax legislation said today that Mr. Reagan had clearly left open the possibility of a revenue increase after the November election. ''He was being responsible,'' said Senator Bob Dole, the Kansas Republican who heads the Finance Committee. ''He didn't close the door on something happening.'' Mr. Dole was referring to the answer Mr. Reagan gave Tuesday night when asked at a televised news conference whether he would ''flatly rule out the possibility of seeking a tax increase next year'' if he were re-elected.

The Administration said today that as part of its policy of improving relations with the Soviet Union, President Reagan had ended the ban on Soviet commercial fishing in American waters. The fishing embargo was imposed by President Carter in January 1980 in response to the Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan in December 1979. Most of the sanctions imposed then have since been lifted, although Moscow still has about 100,000 troops in Afghanistan. In another development, Administration officials said a consensus seemed to be developing within the Government to restore Poland's normal tariff privileges, known as most- favored-nation treatment, as part of a relaxing of sanctions in response to the amnesty law of last Saturday.

A dispatch from St. Paul on July 5, , about Walter F. Mondale's meeting with a group of women concerning the Vice Presidency, included an incorrect reference to Mayor Henry Cisneros of San Antonio. He is the first Mexican-American elected Mayor of a major United States city.

The bitter six-week war in which The Limited Inc. sought to acquire Carter Hawley Hale Stores Inc. cost both companies about $23 million, diverted top executives from their regular work and led to the involvement of three Federal agencies and the New York Stock Exchange. It may even have reached into the White House. The battle will formally end today in Los Angeles, where Carter Hawley's shareholders are expected to approve overwhelmingly its recent moves to fend off its unwanted suitor. They will vote on their company's sale in April of one million shares of a new convertible preferred stock to the General Cinema Corporation for $300 million. The transaction gives General Cinema a 37 percent voting right, the largest of any shareholder. The New York Stock Exchange, which has compelled Carter Hawley to place the General Cinema transaction before its shareholders, has indicated that if shareholders turn down the General Cinema deal, Carter Hawley must restructure the transaction or be delisted.

The Bethlehem Steel Corporation, the nation's second-largest steelmaker, yesterday reported net income of $24 million, or 40 cents a share, for the second quarter - its first profit since the fourth quarter of 1981. Bethelehem had a loss of $70.7 million in last year's second quarter. Donald H. Trautlein, Bethlehem's chairman, attributed the turnaround to cost-cutting and to slightly higher prices and shipments in the latest quarter. Bethlehem's revenues increased to $1.51 billion, up 22.8 percent from $1.23 billion a year before.

The new Chrysler mini-van drives like a car but has the storage space of a small pickup truck and the roominess of a van. But customers do not seem to mind its hybrid nature - far from it. They have been waiting for months to buy it, and analysts say the mini-van has created an entirely new market, one that may well overshadow the all-American station wagon. The mini-van's success is one example of how Detroit's automobile makers are honing their marketing skills. Another example is the Pontiac Fiero, a mid-engined, two-seat sporty car that has also been selling out in dealerships across the country.

HE wanted ''the ultimate in air travel,'' and as far as personal planes go, George Ablah's private Gulfstream jet comes as close to his idea of the ultimate as a lot of money, fancy technology and the owner's characteristic audacity could bring it. The goal was to make the $9 million jet as comfortable and luxurious as possible, since the Wichita, Kan., entrepreneur spends at least 40 hours a month in the air, flying 250,000 miles a year as he visits his projects around the country. And so Mr. Ablah, an enthusiastic art collector who recently lent 25 Henry Moore sculptures to New York City's parks, decided to endow his airborne home with all the amenities he would want on the ground. These turned out to include a $3 million permanent cargo of sculpture, with the bathroom featuring a Giacometti, and a Rodin, a Brancusi, an Arp and a couple of Henry Moores in what might be called the living room. Among other accouterments, the jet also sports gold-plated seat-belt buckles, overhead air nozzles, ashtrays, and bathroom fixtures.

Thousands of childless couples in New York and other states, desperate to adopt healthy white infants, are increasingly traveling nontraditional and controversial avenues in their search for babies. Instead of using adoption agencies, these couples, most often white and middle class, are arranging so-called independent adoptions, set up through a lawyer or another party. Many are placing newspaper advertisements, typically specifying white babies, in states where the practice is legal, including New York. Many are seeking to adopt through word of mouth, sometimes sending out detailed information about themselves to such potential sources as doctors, lawyers, ministers, friends and relatives. More and more people are adopting foreign-born infants or paying tens of thousands of dollars for babies on the illegal market.

The House of Representatives today overwhelmingly approved a Senate-passed bill permitting students to hold religious meetings in public high schools before or after regular school hours. Under the bill, all religious meetings would have to be voluntary and initiated by students, without sponsorship by a school or its teachers, who could be present only as nonparticipants. It also assures the right of high school students to hold political and philosophical meetings. The measure was approved by a vote of 337 to 77, 61 more votes than needed under a special procedure requiring a two-thirds vote for passage. The bill now goes to President Reagan, an enthusiastic supporter, for his signature.