What was going on when I was born?

President Ferdinand E. Marcos announced today that he would refer the findings of the citizen's panel investigating the assassination last year of the opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr. to a special court ''because military men are involved.'' The assassination had ignited an outpouring of anti-Government protest and worsened the Philippines' economic problems. The five-member board unanimously rejected the Government assertions that a lone Communist gunman, Rolando Galman, was somehow able to penetrate a 1,199-man security guard around the Manila International Airport and shoot Mr. Aquino at point- blank range. However, the board was split over how high up in the military hierarchy to go in naming officers involved in the alleged conspiracy. In particular, the board split over naming Gen. Fabian C. Ver, chief of staff of the armed forces, and a close associate of President Ferdinand E. Marcos.

President Reagan and Walter F. Mondale resumed their Presidential campaigning in key states today after a debate that strategists for both men said had not provided Mr. Mondale with the lift he needed to pose an immediate threat to the President. Meanwhile, White House political advisers said President Reagan's lead in some of his private polls now stood in the range of 10 percentage points. Most public opinion surveys showed that the 90-minute debate Sunday night had been judged a draw by television viewers, and campaign officials for both sides said it set the stage for two weeks of hard fighting on the leadership issue. Rivals Trade Charges Today, Mr. Reagan, standing in the shadow of a B-1 bomber, accused his opponent of a ''frightening'' lack of commitment to a strong defense, while Mr. Mondale denounced Mr. Reagan as the ''most detached, the most remote and the most uninformed President in modern history.'' (Page A24.)

Central Intelligence Agency officials told two Senators today that no copies of the C.I.A. manual on guerrilla warfare were edited to remove advice on ''neutralizing'' Nicaraguan Government officials. During the Presidential debate Sunday night, President Reagan said C.I.A. officers in Central America and in Washington had edited the manual before it was printed, deleting material that was in violation of United States policy. Only 12 copies escaped the agency's editing process ''some way or other,'' the President said. Today White House officials said the President had misspoken, meaning that only 12 copies of the manual had been sent to Washington. Administration officials still ''don't have all the information,'' one White House official said.

One out of every 10 high school and junior high school students in New York State questioned in a recent survey described themselves as ''hooked'' on alcohol, and some said they had even been drunk in class. The survey, conducted for the state's Division of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse, estimated that 53 percent of the state's 1.5 million secondary-school students had been drunk at least once in the last year. One in 10 got drunk at least once a week and 13 percent said they had attended classes while ''drunk, stoned or high'' on alcohol, according to the survey. ''Hooked'' was a term used in one of the survey questions, in which the students were asked if they felt they were hooked on alcohol. Eleven percent said they were.

JERUSALEM IN a determined search for tangible evidence of the Roman past in old Jerusalem, Israeli archeologists have excavated the main Roman entryway into the Old City and succeeded in unearthing a guard tower, the tallest preserved Roman structure in the country. But the dig that led to these finds was marked as much by frustration as it was by success. And it may well be remembered most for the ingenuity brought to the task - even including a bit of intrigue, an ancient treasure map and the use of laser technology to recreate, in spirit at least, some of the past that remains elusive. The irresistible lure that began it all was a majestic column. In the second century A.D. the Roman Emperor Hadrian erected a huge column, apparently topped by a statue of himself, in the plaza just inside the main gateway to what was then Roman Jerusalem and what is now known as the Old City. The column served as the visual centerpiece of the walled city, the starting point for measuring all distances in the region, and was considered the major architectural feature of Hadrian's Aeolia Capitolina, as Jerusalem was then called.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1984 International Eight oil-producing countries - six OPEC members and two nonmembers - began informal talks in Geneva in a joint attempt to curb oil production and prop up falling oil prices. But the meeting was dealt an immediate setback when it became known that the oil minister of Nigeria, which unilaterally lowered its oil price last week, would not take part. (Page A1, Column 1.) A race for computer supremacy is under way and could, some experts say, determine which country will dominate the world in economic, military and scientific fields in the next century. (C1:5.) National

Geraldine A. Ferraro came home to Queens yesterday, with her right cheek smudged with lipstick from all the kisses along Steinway Street. Exhorting her constituents to vote her into higher office, the Democratic Vice- Presidential candidate grabbed outstretched hands, held babies and hugged old political supporters as she was swept along the sidewalk of the Steinway shopping area by a crush of Secret Service agents and television cameras. She faced thinner crowds than have appeared in areas of the country where she is more of a novelty, but her trademark exuberance seemed unaffected. A Crowd of 1,000 ''Mondale-Ferraro - and Manton,'' she exclaimed, jerking her head in the direction of Councilman Thomas J. Manton at her side, one of the men she defeated in the 1978 primary that sent her on her way to Congress and who now is the Democratic nominee for her Congressional seat.

Ministers of eight oil-producing nations began informal talks here today in an attempt to curb oil production and prop up weakening oil prices. But the meeting, held in advance of an emergency session of the 13-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries next Monday, was dealt an immediate setback when the oil minister of Nigeria, Tam David-West, declined to take part. He was originally expected to come to Geneva Tuesday. The oil ministers, led by Sheik Ahmed Zaki Yamani of Saudi Arabia, are seeking to form a price defense plan after last week's price cuts by Norway and Britain, both non-OPEC members. Their reductions were followed by an even deeper cut by Nigeria, which is a member but acted unilaterally.

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. IT sounded almost like Sunday school. The subject was God and the discussion one day last week revolved around the belief of Lutheranism that sin can be overcome only by faith in Jesus and that faith is a gift of grace. But the classroom was on the campus of Rutgers, the state university, not in a church. At a time when the public schools have become the focus of a political debate over the issue of separation of church and state, religion is quietly thriving as a topic of academic inquiry at many of the nation's publicly supported universities.

Harold H. Thurston lost his pilot's wings when he turned 60 years old, and now the Supreme Court must decide whether he should have been grounded completely or could have stayed on as a lower-ranking member of the flight crew. Mr. Thurston, a pilot for Trans World Airlines, lost his job because of a Federal regulation that bars pilots and co-pilots from flying after their 60th birthdays. But in April 1978, two months before his 60th birthday, Congress amended the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, raising the mandatory retirement age to 70 for most jobs. Although the changes did not affect the safety regulation that pilots must stop flying at 60, Mr. Thurston thought they gave him a way to keep working for 10 more years. All he had to do, it seemed, was transfer to a job as flight engineer, the third member of the cockpit crew, and a post covered by the new law.

At the rate of 200,000 a day, Tokyo shoppers are streaming into the Ginza to stare at two competing visions of the ultimate Japanese department store. And what they see are two competing versions of contemporary Japan. A glass walkway is just about the only thing that connects the new branches of the Seibu and Hankyu department stores in the Ginza - the famous central business district that has some of Fifth Avenue's cachet and Rodeo Drive's stylishness, but is often so crowded that Orchard Street seems more like it. Puppets dance and television sets flicker in Seibu's windows, while mannequins in gray and black suits stare silently from the Hankyu branch. Seibu blares music that keeps the decibel level at a Tower Records pitch, while Hankyu shoppers are greeted with soft Muzak and the chirping voices of young women. Seibu has devoted an entire floor to services such as vacation home bookings, life insurance, home loans for women and other credit information; Hankyu has reserved most of its space for merchandise.

National Intergroup Inc. yesterday reported a 58.2 percent drop in earnings for the third quarter, while another steel company, Armco Inc., said its loss narrowed to $272.7 million in the quarter. National Intergroup, based in Pittsburgh, said third-quarter net income fell to $7.6 million, or 18 cents a share, from $18.2 million, or 80 cents a share, a year earlier. The 1983 third quarter included a one-time gain of $12.6 million, or 63 cents a share, from the exchange of common stock for first-mortgage bonds.