What was going on when I was born?

A report in the Convention Journal column yesterday about blacks at the Republican National Convention misidentified Samuel R. Pierce Jr. He is the current Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

Egypt's suspicions that Libya was responsible for the mining of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Suez are now ''almost confirmed,'' according to a senior Egyptian military official. He said speculation had focused on one Libyan ship in particular that was believed to have dropped the mines. (Page A1, Columns 5-6.) Heavy fighting in Tripoli, Lebanon, erupted between Sunni Moslem fundamentalists and Syrian-backed militiamen. By nightfall, both leftist and rightist radio stations were saying that as many as 30 people, most of them civilians, had been killed and 125 people wounded. (A3:4-6.)

The American Telephone and Telegraph Company told the Federal Communications Commission today that it would be early next year before it reduces to what it considers an acceptable level the huge backlog of unfilled orders from business customers for voice- and data-transmission services. The smaller backlog of orders for Wide Area Telephone Service, or WATS, lines and for toll-free 800 numbers should be reduced to acceptable levels in two to three months, the company reported. Speaking to reporters after the session with F.C.C. staff members, Gus Blanchard, A.T.& T. Communications' vice president for network services, said that for the 30-day period ending Wednesday the company expected to see the first month-to- month decline in the number of private-line orders not filled on time. He defined ''on time'' as within 48 days of the order's being placed.

FOR the cook as well as the gardener, this is the sweetest time of the year. It takes Keatsian imagery to do justice to summer's bounty, to the lushness of produce in country gardens, at farm stands and in city markets. The ripe scents commingle, the metallic fragrance of rich, red tomatoes and spicy, fresh green herbs, mellow peaches, pungent onions, moist earth still clinging to their roots, and the sweetly haunting perfume of fresh, tender, pale green ears of corn. Summer squash, as yellow as clotted cream; dark green zucchini and delicate little orange zucchini blos Recipes are on page C6. soms; glossy, regally purple eggplant; dramatic crowns of white cauliflower; the profusion of scarlet, yellow and green sweet peppers; fat cranberry beans, streaked with pink and white; crisp string beans; fingers of okra: pyramids of fresh produce spill over market stalls. Though many of these vegetables are available in markets all year long, they never achieve the intensity of flavor that they have right now. The reasons are simple, if unromantic. Long, hot and sunny days increase the sugar content of ripening produce, while the short farm-to-market distance means locally grown products can be picked later and shipped faster, thus decreasing the conversion of sugar to starch.

LAST April, when Ellen Biblowitz told her obstetrician she wanted to undergo amniocentesis to make sure the baby she was carrying didn't have Down's syndrome, her doctor was unperturbed that she had just turned 34, one year under the age at which the procedure is customarily offered. ''In fact, he said he performed amniocentesis quite frequently on women much younger than I,'' she said. While waiting her turn at the Manhattan hospital where the test would be administered, she found herself chatting with expectant mothers in their late 20's and early 30's. As new data on birth defects have revealed that the incidence of Down's syndrome increases steadily as maternal age advances, rather than rising dramatically at about age 35 as had previously been thought, more and more obstetricians in New York have been offering amniocentesis to their younger patients as a means of reassurance. According to a recent study by Dr. Ernest B. Hook, head of the genetics section of the Bureau of Maternal and Child Health in the New York State Department of Health, the number of women having amniocentesis under age 35 nearly tripled between 1979 and 1982. ''The increase reflects those women having the test primarily because of anxieties,'' he said.

More than 15,000 health-care workers voted overwhelmingly last night to reject a proposed settlement of New York City's hospital and nursing home strike. The workers, gathered in Madison Square Garden, voted to continue their strike after Doris Turner, the president of the striking union, said hospital negotiators had failed to guarantee that every striking worker would have his job when the strike was over. Upon learning of the union's rejection, Hezekiah Brown, one of the Federal mediators, said, ''We can't give up. Beginning tomorrow, we will try to put the pieces back together.''

Representative Geraldine A. Ferraro vigorously defended the propriety of her financial affairs yesterday, acknowledging some sloppy record-keeping and technical mistakes by others, but insisting that neither she nor her husband had done anything wrong. ''The supposition was that we had something to hide and obviously we don't,'' Mrs. Ferraro, the Democratic candidate for Vice President, said. On Monday, she released a mass of financial records in what she described as the most comprehensive disclosure ever made by an officeseeker. Yesterday, Mrs. Ferraro subjected herself to nearly two hours of grueling questioning by reporters in an effort to quiet a controversy that has followed her for two weeks and threatened to derail her campaign. Seeking to Start Anew ''I hope by Sunday, which is my birthday, we'll start a new year,'' a composed but rarely contrite Mrs. Ferraro said as she faced a tangled web of microphones and 200 reporters packed into a hotel ballroom at Kennedy International Airport. ''I expect we will answer all of your questions today and get this out of the way today.''

The telephone book here lists everybody in town in 26 pages, the parking meters give 12 minutes for a penny and mail is delivered by boat. Large white-columned houses sit behind wrought iron fences and sweeping lawns. Sailboats rock gently against their moorings in a small cove, lines clacking against masts. But behind the tranquil mien of this village of 3,055, a trace of ferment is showing.

A Federal judge ruled yesterday that the structure of the New York City Board of Estimate ''would appear to be unconstitutional'' because it deviated from the one-man, one-vote principle. Under the ruling, it is now up to the city to show there are factors that justify the deviation and thus make the board's structure constitutional despite the malapportionment, a lawyer for the New York Civil Liberties Union said. The group had brought the suit challenging the board's structure. The opinion was handed down late yesterday by Judge Edward R. Neaher of Federal District Court in Brooklyn.

MTV Networks Inc., which operates a cable television music channel, said yesterday that it planned to start a second 24-hour music channel in January aimed at viewers aged 25 to 49. The announcement was the latest in a series of recent moves by MTV intended to secure its dominant position in the growing music video field. It comes 10 days after the Turner Broadcasting Company, which operates the Cable News Network and the superstation WTBS, said it was considering plans to start a music service in competition with MTV.

Markets Stock prices surged , pushing the Dow Jones industrial average up 22.75 points, to 1,239.73. Strong institutional buying expanded volume to 128.1 million shares, from 75.4 million on Monday. Only 366 stocks lost ground on the Big Board, against 1,274 that gained. Among the stocks that benefited from the rally were blue-chip, transportation and energy issues. (Page D1.) Short interest rose to a record 212.9 million shares , up 5.6 percent, or 11.3 million shares, in the month ended Aug. 15. The previous record was set on May 15, with 208.1 million shares. (D4.)

A program instituted about three weeks ago at Citicorp, asking 2,500 of its officers to find ways to cut costs as much as 40 percent by year-end, is giving people within the banking company a bad case of jitters. A Citicorp spokesman, Susan Weeks, acknowledged yesterday that the program - dubbed Operation Delta - was in force, but she declared that its primary purpose was to establish new priorities for the company. Nonetheless, some banking executives have become anxious about their future. ''I'm going to talk to some headhunters,'' said one.