What was going on when I was born?

A compromise Salvadoran aid plan was approved by Congress. It would give El Salvador an extra $70 million in military assistance during the current fiscal year. Though below President Reagan's request for $117 million, the compromise represented a significant endorsement of his Administration's efforts to support the Government of President Jose Napoleon Duarte. (Page 1, Col. 6.) Concerts in Malaysia were dropped by the New York Philharmonic. It had scheduled two concerts in Kuala Lumpur from which, at the request of the Malaysian Government, a Hebrew-inspired work was to have been deleted. The work was Ernest Bloch's ''Schelomo, A Hebrew Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra.'' The cancellation was announced after widespread protests from Jewish organizations and government officials. (1:5.)

Prices at the producer level rose a moderate three-tenths of 1 percent in July, the Labor Department reported today. It was the first increase in three months but was still a continuing sign that inflation remained in check, despite the surprisingly strong growth of the economy this year. The increase in the Producer Price Index of finished goods, which represents the price that manufacturers charge retailers for their products and which foreshadows future changes in the prices that consumers pay, was spurred by the first jump in food prices since March. The 1.4 percent food price increase was led by advances in beef, veal and pork prices but was partly offset by a drop in citrus prices. At the same time, energy prices declined, falling 1.7 percent. In a month when gasoline prices are usually expected to rise, they fell 3.1 percent.

Congress approved a compromise today that would give El Salvador an extra $70 million in military aid in the current fiscal year. While the figure was below President Reagan's request for $117 million, the Congressional action represented a significant endorsement of the Reagan Administration's efforts to support the Government of President Jose Napoleon Duarte. The vote came in the House and the Senate as the two chambers adjourned for a three-week recess. 'Give Democracy a Chance' Representative Jack F. Kemp, the New York Republican who sponsored the measure in the House, told his colleagues just before the vote: ''Let's not pull the rug out from under President Duarte. Let's give democracy a chance in El Salvador.''

It was touched off, city officials say, by a family feud. Yet the violence that erupted here Wednesday night reflected deep ethnic divisions, according to Hispanic residents, who began arriving in this tough old industrial city two decades ago. And that view was affirmed by the people descended from earlier immigrants, French-Canadian, Irish or Italian. Most people here readily admit that the two sides harbor much anger and resentment. Only a few of Lawrence's citizens, notably some of its elected officials, insist that the recent surge of hostility was totally unexpected.

Federal District Judge Harry E. Claiborne of Las Vegas was convicted by a Federal jury today of filing false income tax returns for 1979 and 1980. He is the first sitting Federal judge in United States history to be convicted of a crime committed while on the bench. Judge Claiborne was acquitted of the criminal charge that he intentionally failed to list a $75,000 loan in his 1978 financial statement to the Federal Judicial Ethics Committee. The 67-year-old judge faces a maximum of six years in prison and possible financial penalties for the tax convictions, which involved failure to report more than $100,000 in income for the two years.

HOUSE PASSES BILL TO WIDEN CLEANUP OF TOXIC WASTES WASHINGTON, Aug. 10 - The House of Representatives tonight overwhelmingly approved a bill that would expand the nation's most important program for cleaning up potentially hazardous dumps. The vote was 323 to 33. The bill would authorize the Environmental Protection Agency program to spend up to $10.2 billion over a five-year period to clean up the dumps. The bill, the Superfund Expansion and Protection Act of 1984, was passed despite the objections of some Republican legislators and Administration officials, who said that it was motivated mainly by election-year politics. Commitment in Senate Told The Senate has not voted on such legislation. But the chief sponsor of the House bill, Representative James J. Florio, a New Jersey Democrat, said that ''key actors in the Senate'' had made a commitment to help pass a waste cleanup bill before final Congress adjournment later this year.

The New York Philharmonic announced yesterday that it had canceled two concerts in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The orchestra's action came after widespread expressions of outrage from Jewish organizations and government officials, including Mayor Koch and Representative Bill Green, who protested the Philharmonic's capitulation to the anti-Jewish policies of the Malaysian Government. The Philharmonic had agreed on Wednesday to a request by the Malaysians to delete a work from its Sept. 3 tour program, Ernest Bloch's ''Schelomo, a Hebrew Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra,'' because of the score's Jewish theme and origins. The orchestra was scheduled to play in Kuala Lumpur on Sept. 2 and 3. Malaysia is a predominantly Moslem country, and Islam is its official state religion. Rais Yatim, Malaysia's Minister of Information, said at a news conference earlier this week that discouragement of the screening, portrayal or musical presentation of works of Jewish origin was part of a Government policy that had been ''spelled out clearly,'' United Press International reported.

The two highest-ranking police officers ever indicted here were found guilty by a Federal jury today of running a ring that extorted over $350,000 in bribes from gambling operators. The officers were convicted with five co-defendants on all 48 counts of an indictment that resulted from a three- year investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. All were convicted of conspiracy, racketeering and extortion. James J. Martin, who was a Deputy Police Commissioner, the department's second-highest officer before his indictment last spring, and former Chief Inspector Joseph DePeri were also found guilty of obstruction of justice. Both men stared straight ahead as the jury's foreman, Christine Crane, read the verdict.

For Yehuda Z. Blum, Israel's chief representative here, the United Nations has been an arena of nearly constant hostility during his six-year assignment. By contrast, T. T. B. Koh, Singapore's delegate since 1974, has found the organization provided a largely cordial environment, suitable to advancing the interests of his country. Both Mr. Blum and Mr. Koh, representatives of small pro-Western countries, are leaving their posts this month, Mr. Blum to return to teaching international law at Jerusalem University and Mr. Koh to become his nation's Ambassador in Washington. In interviews, the two diplomats reflected on their experiences here, revealing how this organization of 159 members can be an ordeal for some and an avenue of success for others.

Over the last week there have been increasing indications that Prime Minister John N. Turner's election campaign has faltered, while the fortunes of his challenger, Brian Mulroney, leader of the opposition Progressive Conservative Party, seem sharply on the rise. The depth of the apparent drop in Mr. Turner's popularity was suggested by a Gallup poll made public Monday. The poll showed that 39 percent of Canadians favored the Liberal Party leader immediately before he was sworn in as Prime Minister on June 30. Mr. Mulroney was favored by 22 percent. But two weeks into the campaign, which began on July 15, a poll made public last week by the CTV television network showed Mr. Mulroney's Tories leading the Liberals by 45 to 36 percent.

The leader of the most prominent exiled group fighting white minority rule in South Africa criticized United States policy in the region today, saying the Reagan Administration had given South Africa a license to attack its neighbors. The comments by the leader, Oliver Tambo, at a news conference here, reflected a profound disaffection by black activists inside and outside South Africa with the United States policy called ''constructive engagement.'' The policy holds that South Africa's white leadership is more likely to respond to coaxings toward policy changes than to confrontation and outside demands for change. ''South Africa,'' Mr. Tambo said, ''has been given the license to mount an offensive against what Reagan called - to the delight of the South Africans - the Communist, terrorist aggression which Reagan was fighting all over the world.''

Before the elections in 1980 that brought Robert Mugabe to power, there were many who predicted that civil war would erupt in this divided land, a contest for the spoils of freedom. The thinking was rooted in recent history. Throughout the years of guerrilla campaigns that finally ended white minority rule in the country once called Rhodesia, there were two distinct national armies in the field, divided from each other by tribe and personality. One fought under Mr. Mugabe's banner, the other was loyal to his archrival, Joshua Nkomo. Both were committed to an independent Zimbabwe under their own leaders. Four years later, despite close calls and with the help of good fortune not always of his own making, Mr. Mugabe boasts that the war some saw as inevitable has not taken place.