What was going on when I was born?

A Federal judge today approved requests by six of the seven regional telephone companies to enter a broad range of businesses beyond local telephone service. Judge Harold H. Greene of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia gave the permission by modifying his 1982 order for the breakup of the Bell system. That breakup led to the establishement in January of the regional companies, Domestically, the companies would be able to engage in computer sales, telephone equipment leasing and office products sales, among other businesses. Overseas, they could offer data processing, consulting, engineering and construction services.

The United States has lifted its objections to Polish membership in the International Monetary Fund in response to the freeing of political prisoners in Poland, a senior Reagan Administration official said today. The move clears the way for Poland, which has a heavy debt burden, to rejoin the organization, something it has wanted to do since the late 1970's. Poland's efforts have been effectively squelched by United States opposition, which started after the Polish Government repressed the Solidarity trade union movement. As a member of the organization, Poland could obtain credit more easily to pay its foreign debt, which amounts to about $35 billion.

President Reagan said today that he was still committed to proposing spending reductions next year that would bring the Federal deficit down to about $100 billion by 1988. In a brief exchange with reporters, Mr. Reagan did not indicate how he would meet this goal of halving the deficits without major savings in the military budget. Several of his top budget advisers said it appeared to them that the President would not accept their proposal to reduce projected military spending by $58 billion over three years. Without that, the President would need to add to his sweeping package of domestic spending reductions to reach his goal.

Industrial production in the United States turned modestly higher in November after a two-month slump, prompting economists to strengthen their forecasts for the economy. The Federal Reserve Board reported yesterday that production at the nation's factories, mines and utilities rose four-tenths of 1 percent last month. Many economists said the increase - when considered with the rise in retail sales reported Thursday and the drop in unemployment reported last week - indicated that the economy was beginning to expand again after a two-month pause. ''These are three very strong numbers,'' said William E. Gibson, chief economist at the Republicbank in Dallas. ''They make it clear the economy is healthy.''

The United States and Cuba announced an agreement today for the repatriation of 2,746 Cuban criminals and mental patients who came here in the 1980 boatlift from the port of Mariel. White House officials said the agreement opened the way for the resumption of normal immigration from Cuba to the United States, which has been largely suspended since 1980. Larry Speakes, the White House spokesman, emphasized that the agreement ''does not signal any change in U.S. policy toward Cuba.''

The Vatican has reportedly threatened to expel from their orders nuns who signed a statement asserting that Roman Catholics hold diverse views on abortion. According to some of the nuns, who spoke on condition that their names not be used, the Sacred Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes issued a demand that they renounce the statement or be expelled in letters to the superiors of the nuns' orders. The nuns said they had not seen the document but that their superiors had discussed its contents with them. Statement Appeared in Ad Twenty-four nuns were among the 97 signers of the statement, sponsored by Catholics for a Free Choice, arguing that a variety of moral positions on abortion exist in the Roman Catholic Church. The church's official stand is one of total condemnation.

In a dimly lit courtroom whose aisles are crowded with members of an interested public, a political trial is under way that many regard as the most significant in this country in a decade. After 15 days of testimony, the trial of six relatively unknown Yugoslavs, who are accused of holding meetings with the purpose of ''abolishing the existing Government'' of Yugoslavia, has emerged as something of a paradox in the political life of this country. On the one hand, it is seen as part of an important and abrupt swing toward more repressive policies by a Government that has, among Communist countries, been something of a model of openness and tolerance, particularly in recent years. Splits in the Leadership At the same time, the trial, which is widely reported to be opposed by some top Yugoslav leaders, seems at least in mood and tone of a different nature than the show trials that have taken place in other Communist countries, as well as in Yugoslavia in earlier periods. In this sense, the trial seems to many here a uniquely Yugoslav event, one arising out of competing forces within this multinational society. The most common explanation is that the prosecution of the six stems from the insistence of hard-liners, particularly in Bosnia and Croatia, who wanted to use the event to embarrass their more moderate rivals in Serbia over the growth of dissent.

Jakarta, capital of the world's fifth most populous nation, is a sprawling city of seven and a half million people, and some days it seems that all of them are out on the roads, riding in an assortment of vehicles. There are the trucks of industry and commerce, the chauffeur-driven cars of the rich and privileged, hundreds of rattletrap taxis and a fleet of double-decker buses. There are also some traditionally Asian, even uniquely Indonesian, varieties in the mix. There are opelets and bemos: low-powered, high- risk four-wheeled and three-wheeled vehicles with space for four to six passengers on benches in the back. And there are life-threatening motorized rickshaws for one or two riders.

Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, the director of a Nicaraguan opposition newspaper, said today that censorship was stifling the paper but that he had no intention of going into exile in protest. Interviewed at Miami's airport as he prepared to board a flight to Costa Rica, Mr. Chamorro said that comments he made Thursday in Washington had been misinterpreted by journalists who reported that he was going into ''voluntary exile'' in Costa Rica.

The United States has begun an investigation to piece together the details of the hijacking of a Kuwaiti airliner to Iran last week, Reagan Administration officials said today. A report in Kuwait today that the United States had sent a special combat unit to the Middle East to free those aboard the airliner was denied by a spokesman at the Pentagon. The Kuwaiti report was in the newspaper Al Qabas, which did not give any source for the article. The State Department refused to confirm or deny the Kuwaiti newspaper's report, but department sources suggested that in situations such as this there is an advantage to the United States in a deliberately ambiguous response.

The 20-year-old Government of this northern Central American nation appeared headed for defeat early today at the hands of its conservative opposition. Prime Minister George Price, 65 years old, who led Belize to independence three years ago, was unseated in his own assembly district by a 25-year- old city councilman, Derek Aikman, according to unofficial returns.

The Western allies declared today that they welcomed the planned resumption of Soviet-American negotiations next month and would do their part ''to bring about an improved East-West relationship and increased cooperation.'' In a communique issued at the end of the two-day Foreign Ministers meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the allies called upon the Soviet bloc nations ''to adopt a similarly positive approach toward genuine detente.'' This annual December meeting was noticeably free of tensions and disagreements. There was no reported wrangling over the final communique and the concluding session this morning ended about two hours earlier than scheduled, reflecting the few contentious items on the agenda.