What was going on when I was born?

One week after they upset the Washington Redskins, the Giants upset the Dallas Cowboys, 19-7, today. The victory, with the St. Louis Cardinals' 16-13 loss to the Los Angeles Rams, left the Giants, Cardinals and Cowboys tied for the division lead. The Redskins will also be 6-4 and tied for first if they defeat the Atlanta Falcons Monday night. If not, the Redskins will face an uphill battle in the tight Eastern Division race in the National Conference.

Wayne Frederick, a burly corn grower in this farm community where Herbert Hoover was born, is in the vanguard of an unsung but growing movement that is changing millenia-old agricultural techniques. He and thousands of other innovative farmers have abandoned tilling - the exhausting and costly process of turning over thousands of tons of earth to loosen the soil and bury harvest residue and weeds before planting. Instead of plowing under the messy residue, they simply plant under it in the spring. While the no-till technique has disadvantages that even its advocates concede will prevent it from being practiced by a majority of farmers, it does offer two huge advantages over traditional tilling: It greatly reduces erosion and it slashes fuel and equipment costs.

''In the last two or three months, we lost control of our business, and it was no joke.

An article in Business Day Oct. 16 about a lawsuit brought by the Chase Manhattan Bank against Arthur Andersen & Company misstated the legal status of a former officer of the Drysdale Securities Corporation. Peter J. Wasserman, its former president, was not charged with any criminal wrongdoing.

Federal agents in Ohio yesterday arrested four long-sought fugitives in the slaying of a New Jersey state trooper nearly three years ago. A fifth person accused of harboring them also was seized. In a statement issued in Washington late in the afternoon, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said three suspects were seized in a home in Cleveland early yesterday, while two others were taken into custody in a van near Deerfield, Ohio, 40 miles southeast of Cleveland. The suspects included Raymond Luc Levasseur, a reputed member of a New England-based revolutionary group who has been on the F.B.I.'s 10 most- wanted list since 1977, and Richard Charles Williams, one of two men indicted for the murder of Trooper Philip Lamonaco on a highway in New Jersey in 1981. Mr. Levasseur's wife, Patricia Gros, and Jaan Karl Laaman, both of whom had been sought for questioning in the trooper's slaying, also were taken into custody. No Trace of One Suspect But the agents found no trace of Thomas William Manning, the second man who had been indicted in the slaying. His fingerprints had been found on the killers' getaway car, which was found abandoned a few miles from the scene of the shooting.

Sikh refugees huddled at makeshift camps today said the killings that followed Indira Gandhi's assassination were condoned or abetted by the police. The killings, which wiped out whole Sikh neighborhoods in the sprawling New Delhi area in the days after the assassination Wednesday, were described as mixing class and political warfare. They have generated an enormous refugee problem, since even Sikhs who were not attacked have fled their homes. ''I am coming here from Kashmiri Gate,'' shouted a young, well-dressed Sikh student in a camp thrown up at the Government Model School No. 2 in Old Delhi. ''Otherwise, they would have set me to fire.''

The economy remained virtually at a standstill in October, and is likely to remain at this plateau through the remainder of the year, the National Association of Purchasing Management concluded yesterday in its most recent report. New orders, production levels and employment all slipped, according to the trade group's monthly survey of purchasing managers at 250 of the nation's largest corporations. But inflation apparently remained in check, with members reporting fewer price increases for the sixth- consecutive month, as well as the most price decreases since the first quarter of 1983. Some 15 percent of the respondents said prices were up in October, compared with 19 percent in September, while 13 percent indicated that prices were down, compared with 12 percent last month.

On flatbed trucks, at festive rallies, in sharp debate and through relentless television advertising, candidates made last-minute appeals to voters yesterday throughout the New York metropolitan area. With an autumn chill in the air, both Democrats and Republicans took their campaigns to the streets - the Democrats with a traveling rally featuring by Mayor Koch, a band and a stand-up comedian; the Republicans with a leafleting campaign in major shopping areas in New York City. In a televised debate, the candidates for Senate from New Jersey - Senator Bill Bradley, the Democrat, and his Republican opponent, Mary V. Mochary - argued tax policy. Simultaneously, on another station, the candidates for Congress from the East Side of Manhattan - Representative Bill Green, a Republican, and Borough President Andrew J. Stein, a Democrat, clashed repeatedly on the environment, tenant rights, campaign spending, disclosure of tax returns and other issues.

The tax-exempt status of employee benefits has long been considered safe. But in the search for ways to raise new revenues and ''reform'' the tax system, some members of Congress and the Administration have set their sights on them. As a result, in advance of the expected 1985 national debate on taxes, employers and organized labor are mobilizing to combat what they see as a post-election drive to make some benefits partly or fully subject to income and Social Security taxes. For organized labor, such moves threaten the value of benefit packages negotiated over the years in collective bargaining. Employers, meanwhile, are worried that taxing benefits will lead to employee demands for wage increases or improved benefits. This prospect, they say, raises the larger concern over the resulting impact on inflation, employment and the ability of American companies to remain competitive in international markets.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1984 International Israel's Cabinet approved a package deal that would hold down wages and freeze prices for three months. Workers and industrialists voluntarily accepted the austerity measures, indicating how desperate the nation has become to escape the ravages of an 800 percent inflation rate. (Page A1.)

A law newly enacted in an effort to end three years of bitter disputes over the Social Security disability program has spawned more conflict. The measure was passed in September to correct what legislators viewed as the improper denial of benefits by the Reagan Administration to thousands of disabled workers. But the Administration has been urging courts to interpret it in a manner that would restrict the payment of benefits granted by court rulings to thousands of people. Government attorneys, citing the new law, have asked the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in New York, to curtail benefits that the court had previously granted to 50,000 mentally disabled people in New York State.

On Saturday afternoon at Hollywood Park, just down the road from Los Angeles International Airport, about 75 thoroughbreds will compete in seven new races called the Breeders' Cup that will take less than 13 minutes to run. What happens in those 13 minutes, and how many people care about the results, could well shape the future of thoroughbred racing. Scenario A: The races are thrilling, competitive contests among the best horses in the world, and are won by such popular stars as Slew o' Gold and Chief's Crown. The races determine national champions and yield a horse-of- the-year titleholder. A larger audience than has ever watched racing on television tunes in for an unparalleled four hours of live network coverage. The races rekindle national interest in thoroughbred racing, and the Breeders' Cup rivals the Kentucky Derby as the racing event of the year. From now on, the rest of the racing season is a prelude to the series, and horses' entire careers are geared toward winning a Breeders' Cup race.