What was going on when I was born?

It has been called everything from an ''insult'' to a ''punishment from God,'' and the months since it was announced have brought threats of secession and revenge. People scoffed at the ''dowdy numbers'' and pouted like spoiled children about how Manhattan gets ''everything it wants.'' But the inevitable will be confronted at midnight Monday, when Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island assume unequivocally the area code of 718. Those who neglect to use the three numbers when calling those boroughs will find themselves enmeshed in telephone company recordings that exhort them to redial using 718.

All clothing and household fabrics made in this country are now required to carry a label saying so. The requirement is part of a new Federal law designed to promote the sale of American-made garments, sheets, towels and other fabrics for the home. The law was sought by labor and the fiber, textile and clothing industries, which have suffered substantial unemployment since foreign-made goods began taking a larger share of their markets in the 1960's and 70's. Industry Beginning Campaign Coinciding with the advent of the new law, an industry association, the Crafted with Pride in U.S.A Council, has been established to conduct what the industry describes as a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign about the quality, style and value of American-made goods.

The index of leading economic indicators, the gauge the Government uses to try to foresee turns in the economy, rose a strong 1.3 percent in November, the Commerce Department reported today. It was the biggest increase since last February. Analysts said it confirmed earlier signals that the economy had rebounded from a spell of anemic growth during the summer and early fall and was poised for continued expansion throughout 1985. They attributed the improvement partly to recent efforts by the Federal Reserve Board to avert a downturn by letting interest rates decline.

The International Monetary Fund today approved a $20 billion aid and austerity program to help Argentina pay its bills. The move ended more than a year of uncertainty over the financial status of the developing world's third-largest debtor. Today's decision by the fund's board of governors follows similar action last year for Brazil and the year before for Mexico, the two most indebted third-world countries. Brazil and Mexico each owe foreign creditors more than $90 billion; Argentina's debt is about $45 billion.

Mayor Koch said yesterday that he would not create a city holiday in 1985 to mark the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The Mayor said city employees who wanted to observe the birthday of the slain civil rights leader on Jan. 15 could do so without losing pay by drawing on accumulated leave time or by taking some time off in advance. But he refused to establish an additional paid holiday next year for all municipal workers - as the City Council had asked him to do in a unanimous resolution 10 days ago. Cost Put at $17 Million Mr. Koch said the issue was one to be resolved in collective bargaining talks between the city and its unions - leaving open the possibility that he might change his mind. He also said the cost to the city of an additional paid holiday would be $17 million.

In darkened corners of quiet cafes, they plan the overthrow of a government or seal a big drug transaction. Some speak of spy operations or transferring huge sums of money. Secret meetings and plots of one sort or another seem to abound in Miami these days. It has become a city of international intrigue where foreign agents and competing ideological, political, criminal and industrial spies are as commonplace as palm trees and swimsuits. Some call it the new Casablanca.

Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and his Congress Party scored a smashing triumph and appeared headed today for one of the biggest election victories since India became independent. Returns from nationwide parliamentary elections indicated that Mr. Gandhi, who succeeded his mother, Indira, after she was assassinated on Oct. 31, had achieved a popular victory whose dimensions have not been seen since the Nehru era of the 1950's and early 1960's. With results officially declared in 388 of the 508 parliamentary constituencies where voting took place this week, the Congress Party had won 310 seats in the lower house of Parliament. Mr. Gandhi's party was winning seats at a rate that would give him four-fifths of the seats in the house that is to convene next month. Projection by Government TV The official Government television network's computers projected that Congress would win 50 percent of the popular vote, the first time any party has done so. The Congress Party's computers projected that it would win at least 50 percent of popular vote, and perhaps as much as 60 percent, and would end up with 400 to 410 seats in Parliament.

Spaniards call it the Flick case, and it can be viewed as a corruption scandal, cynical politics, overzealousness by the press or just a big national joke. However it is viewed, the unsubstantiated allegations that Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez received a suitcase full of money from Flick, the West German industrial conglomerate, has angered, divided and entertained the country for more than a month. And that the furor has been over a lot of smoke but little fire says much about the best and the worst of Spain's seven- year-old democracy. ''Democracy here is still pending,'' said Eduardo Martin Toval, a spokesman for the governing Socialist Party, ''and all that is feeding leaks and rumors is not helping to resolve the problem.''

A senior African United Nations official accused Western nations today of not reacting promptly enough to appeals for emergency aid for Ethiopia and other famine-stricken countries of Africa. ''It required the exposure of the extent of the drought and its effect on the lives of people on television screens in Europe and North America to whip up sympathy and support,'' said the official, Prof. Adebayo Adedji of Nigeria, executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa and special representative of the United Nations Secretary General on the African economy.

China and the Soviet Union signed an agreement today under which the Russians will assist in modernizing several dozen industrial plants and other projects that were built with Soviet help in the 1950's. At the same time, the two Communist powers announced a 22 percent increase in the figure for their 1985 trade that was signed only four weeks ago. The new total of 4.6 billion Swiss francs, the equivalent of $1.8 billion, is $400 million more than the two sides set after completing annual trade talks in Moscow in November. The developments came at the end of a nine-day visit here by Ivan V. Arkhipov, a First Deputy Prime Minister, who is an alternate member of the Kremlin's ruling Politburo. The visit was the most important by any Soviet official in 15 years, and the two sides appeared intent on ending it in a manner that emphasized the heightened goodwill between them.

President Reagan sounded a cautious note today about arms talks scheduled for next month with the Soviet Union, saying there was a need to ''temper our expectations with realism.'' The remarks came in what the White House described as written questions and answers and ''an interview'' with the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun. A printed copy of the exchange was made public by the White House press office.

Government leaders have agreed on a 1985 budget that would increase Japan's military spending by 6.9 percent above this year's level. As in the past, the Japanese decision Friday night was made with an eye on the United States reaction, a familiar practice that acquired a certain urgency this time because Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone will meet with President Reagan in Los Angeles in four days. While technically the two matters are unrelated, this country's military program is linked to its economic policies by many Americans who believe Japan has failed to carry its weight militarily while accumulating large trade surpluses against the United States. For several years, as a result, the Japanese Government has shaped military spending in the hope of placating American critics and yet not straining its hard-pressed treasury.