What was going on when I was born?

A Washington lobbyist was named by Mayor Koch yesterday to head New York City's troubled Human Resources Administration. The lobbyist, George Gross, the 50- year-old director of Federal relations at the National League of Cities and a veteran member of Congressional committee staffs, will take over the city agency with the largest budget, as well as responsibility for dealing with some of the city's most difficult social problems. ''I know him, I know him,'' Mayor Koch responded when asked why he had chosen Mr. Gross. The Mayor said he first met Mr. Gross in 1969, when Mr. Koch entered Congress, and had always admired him as a ''superb technician.'' A Budget of $4 Billion ''I believe he has the expertise,'' Mr. Koch said at a City Hall news conference. ''But only time will tell whether my confidence will be well placed.''

Homeowners who heat with natural gas can expect to face only slight price increases this winter despite the impending removal of Federal price controls on more than half the nation's production. The decontrol, due to occur on Jan. 1, is the culmination of what is by far the biggest step toward free- market pricing of gas since a landmark Supreme Court decision first imposed price controls at the wellhead in 1954. For most of the period since 1978, when the law for phased decontrol of so-called new gas was enacted, it was widely thought that when this gas was free from price restriction in 1985, there would be a sharp increase in its price. Recently, however, it has become clear that no price surge will take place soon, and that consumers face neither sharp price increases nor shortages in the foreseeable future.

A Soviet journalist who spent the past year in Britain turned up here today and said that he was abducted in 1983 by British agents while attending the Venice Film Festival and had been forced to make anti-Soviet statements. The journalist, Oleg G. Bitov, 52 years old, spoke at a news conference called by the Soviet authorities. He had disappeared in London last month. (In London, the British Government said Mr. Bitov came to Britain of his own free will last year and it called his statements in Moscow ''absurd and offensive.'') At the news conference, Mr. Bitov said that he had planned to return to the Soviet Union all along. He said he had waited until he won the confidence of his purported captors and had then simply bought an airline ticket and boarded a plane.

Argentina completed the technical work today on an agreement with the International Monetary Fund that would enable it to secure a 15-month standby loan of $1.4 billion, according to Bernardo Grinspun, Argentina's Economy Minister. ''There is an agreement with the staff,'' Mr. Grinspun announced at a news conference today before leaving on a trip to the United States. He said the understanding had been worked out between an I.M.F. mission and the Argentine Government and must be approved by the agency's 21-member executive board. (In Washington, however, a senior Reagan Administration official was skeptical of Mr. Grinspun's announcement, noting that Argentine officials have reported progress in negotiations with the I.M.F. before, only to recant later. And an I.M.F. spokesman declined to comment under the agency's standing policy on whether an agreement had been reached.)

The Public Service Company of New Hampshire has told the Securities and Exchange Commission that its share of the cost of finishing the Seabrook nuclear plant could be twice as high as previously estimated. But a spokesman for the utility said yesterday that this was the high end of the possible range and that Public Service did not regard the cost as certain to go that high. The company, which owns 35.5 percent of the troubled project, said in a preliminary filing for a stock registration that its remaining cost could run as high as $730 million, although it estimated in July that the cost would be $350 million. The July estimate put the plant's total cost at $4.5 billion.

''You just have to go for it, go for it. That's the American way.''

President Reagan today ordered actions that the White House said would reduce steel imports and help the American steel industry. The President directed his trade negotiator, Bill Brock, to negotiate ''voluntary restraint agreements'' with steel-exporting countries. This will result in more protection for the domestic steel industry than some members of the Cabinet had recommended and less protection than the mandatory quotas and tariffs sought by the industry and recommended by a majority of the United States International Trade Commission. But the White House, seeking to assure the industry that it would get protection, added that it would act to block access to the American market for countries that refuse to agree to limit their steel shipments to the United States.

Bordeaux merchants have been selling wine to foreigners at least since the Norman Conquest and, in nine centuries, they've never lost their touch. The result, after some nine centuries of honing their sales skills, is a blend of pomp and ceremony, shrewd commercialism and pure nonsense that has made Bordeaux the envy of the rest of the wine world. Rarely have these skills come into play so successfully as they did here last week, as Bordeaux began a celebration of the multimillion-dollar renewal of one of its treasures, Ch^ateau Margaux, and the 50th anniversary of the French-American wine trade since Prohibition. At the same time French wine makers of Bordeaux, Burgundy, Beaujolais and Champagne paid WINE TALKcourt to one of their best American customers, the New York City wine retailer, Sherry-Lehmann Inc. The celebration began Thursday on a sedate note, a tasting at Ch^ateau Prieure-Lichine in Cantenac, a two-minute drive south of Margaux. Gathered on one table were the 1982 and 1983 wines of about 35 chateaus from the Medoc region, which includes the communes of Margaux, St.-Julien, Pauillac and St.-Est ephe. Tasting the wine were notables of the trade, such as Hugh Johnson and Alexis Lichine.

The 20 sophomores in Kathy Barnes's English 112 class at Greenwich High School are average students, the silent wheels of most public high schools. Nonetheless, she believes that they deserve some oil, just like the gifted and the troubled students who normally command the most attention. ''An 'average' student isn't going to get lost here,'' said Mrs. Barnes after a class in which she had proved the point by gently compelling each one, by name, to reveal a tidbit of personal history that related to a novel the class is reading. Later in the week she and other teachers will be available at a ''learning center,'' a staffed study room where the students will get more personalized help in composition and history.

After a record year, the market for public stock offerings by private companies has gone into a slump, forcing many of these companies to bypass the new-issue market and seek capital - often through creative deals - elsewhere. The slump in this so-called initial public offering, or I.P.O., market is also taking its toll on Wall Street, where investment banks profited handsomely from last year's overheated market. Many are tightening their belts while trying to find financing techniques more acceptable to finicky investors. ''The I.P.O. market is paying for an unbelievable splurge that I don't think we'll see again for a long time,'' said Ronald Koenig, chairman of Ladenburg, Thalmann & Company, a brokerage firm. ''A lot of companies went public that never should have gotten public money.''

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1984 The Economy President Reagan has ordered negotiations on steel imports in an effort to reach ''voluntary restraint agreements'' with steel-exporting countries. The White House said the move would help the domestic steel industry, which had sought protection through mandatory quotas and tariffs. (Page A1.) Reaction to the decision was generally favorable. (D5.)

In a surprise move, the board of directors of the United Technologies Corporation said yesterday that it had accepted the resignation of Robert J. Carlson, its president. Mr. Carlson was widely believed to be the heir apparent to Harry J. Gray, the chairman and chief executive officer of the Hartford-based company. The board also announced that it had appointed a special committee to choose Mr. Gray's successor. Presumably, the person chosen would initially replace Mr. Carlson as president. Mr. Gray, who will be 65 years old in November, said in January that, at the board's request, he would remain as chief executive until the end of 1985. Mr. Carlson, 54, had been president since May 1983, after four years as head of the company's power division, which included Pratt & Whitney, the world's largest manufacturer of jet engines.