What was going on when I was born?

Methyl isocyanate, the chemical that killed over 2,000 people in India, was accidentally leaked 28 times in the last five years at a Union Carbide plant in West Virginia, the Environmental Protection Agency reported today. The report, based on an inspection last month of the plant and its records, attributed the releases to ''equipment failure'' and to ''human errors.'' The report said more information was being sought to determine if any of the methyl isocyanate escaped into the surrounding environment. The plant, in Institute, W. Va., is near Charleston, the state capital.

A Washington dispatch yesterday about an anti-abortion march misidentified the march route. It was Constitution Avenue.

SOME people count sheep. Other people sleep on them. Or, to be more precise, they sleep on sheepskinlike mattress pads imported from New Zealand. Americans, it seems, have rediscovered their beds, and woolly mattress covers are just one of many products they are buying to stay cozy. There are also flannel sheets of 100 percent cotton, overstuffed pillows for reading in bed and pillows that can be rolled up and packed in a suitcase. Duvet covers, long used on European comforters but only recently introduced here, can change the color of a comforter in minutes or eliminate the need for a top sheet. Electric blankets, now called automatic blankets to erase a drab image, can be programmed to keep the feet warmer than the head. The trend had its start during the energy shortages of the 1970's. More homeowners began turning their thermostats down at night and manufacturers expanded output of warm products to meet the expected demand. By the time the items were introduced, some two years later, customers were more concerned with comfort than conservation. So the bedding was targeted toward a new market.

Last year was the third straight year in which inflation was held to a rate of 4 percent or less. Page D1. WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 - President Reagan's nomination of James A. Baker 3d to be Secretary of the Treasury won the unanimous support of the Senate Finance Committee today, all but assuring his confirmation by the full Senate next week. However, Mr. Baker, who is leaving the White House after four years as the President's chief of staff, encountered bipartisan misgivings over the most important legislative issue on the Treasury's agenda this year - the overhaul of the tax system. The changes were proposed by the man with whom Mr. Baker is switching jobs, Donald T. Regan.

New-car sales by the nation's six major manufacturers rose 4.1 percent in the Jan. 11-20 selling period, the companies reported today. The average daily rate of sales was the highest for the period since 1973. The companies sold 168,668 new automobiles, or 21,084 a day, up from 182,273, or 20,253 a day, last year. There were with eight selling days in the period this year and nine last year. In the 1973 period, there were 23,390 cars sold a day.

Leaders of the country's nonprofit organizations, battered by cutbacks in government grants and threatened by Federal tax proposals, are fighting back with a nationwide lobbying campaign. ''I have never seen the nonprofits so alarmed,'' said Brian O'Connell, the president of Independent Sector, a coalition of 595 national nonprofit associations, philanthropies and fund-raising federations. ''Every kind of organization from museums and colleges to small neighborhood associations or advocacy groups is aroused about the Administration's policies toward charities.'' In the last four years, Federal grants to the organizations' programs have been cut by $13.5 billion. Now the nonprofit groups say the Treasury Department's proposed restrictions on the tax benefits resulting from gifts to charities will cost them almost $12 billion a year more, reducing individual contributions from $59.5 billion a year to $47.7 billion.

Before this week, when people mentioned the threat to Indian River citrus groves, it had nothing to do with freezing weather. Real estate prices along this section of the Florida east coast have risen so dramatically in recent years that the threat came in the form of speculators willing to pay prices that made the land too valuable for agricultural use. But citrus has been as good as gold for Indian River growers. When a freeze 13 months ago was killing orange and grapefruit trees in the northern part of the Florida citrus belt, the Indian River area came through the cold wave with its trees and crop intact. Indian River fruit fetched a premium price in the marketplace.

In a secondary eruption following its sudden explosion on Monday, the stock market yesterday extended its rally with a burst upward in the last hour of trading. The Dow Jones industrial average languished most of the day, then took off near the end of trading to close up 15.23 points, at 1,274.73, its highest level since Jan. 12, 1984. The increase follows Monday's surprising 34-point run, and a modest pullback on Tuesday in extrememly heavy volume. ''What this feels like is being in the middle of some kind of stampede,'' said Joseph A. Feshbach, chief market analyst for Prudential-Bache Securities Inc. ''We've all been trained in the last three years that you don't want to be left behind when this thing takes off. It may be taking off.''

''YOU can see the Brooklyn, Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridges, the World Trade Center, Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building,'' said Fred Caruso of the dramatic loft space, a set created for the one of the main characters of ''Year of the Dragon,'' a forthcoming movie directed by Michael Cimino. Added Mr. Caruso, who is the executive in charge of production for the film: ''There is traffic and movement, boats, smoke, life - all real.'' Well, it was, at least for a while. Set as if suspended between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, the loft afforded an unusual and startling panorama of the lower Manhattan skyline. Its arresting views and the sophisticated, sleek interior represent an up-to- the-minute movie image of city living today.

''It is important to restore a greater degree of consensus about our interests and commitments around the world and about our willingness to defend them.'' - Senator Richard G. Lugar. (A8:1.)

THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 1985 Markets The stock market resumed its rally with a late outburst of buying, which one analyst called a ''stampede.'' The new surge easily offset Tuesday's modest pullback and sent the Dow Jones industrial average 15.23 points higher, to 1,274.73. That is about 13 points short of the Dow's record high, but two other, broader market gauges continued moves to unprecedented heights. Volume was a hefty 144 million shares but still below Tuesday's 174 million pace. (Page D1.) Treasury bond prices were up less than half a point as dealers said they saw signs that investors were beginning to shift out of lower-yielding short-term issues. (D16.)

The MacArthur Foundation of Chicago said yesterday that it had contracted to sell 10 properties in the New York metropolitan region for nearly half a billion dollars. The sale, which real-estate experts called the largest residential realestate transaction ever in the region, involves the vast Lincoln Towers development on the Upper West Side, the Great Neck (L.I.) Terrace garden apartments, the Silver Towers development in Kew Gardens, Queens, and seven properties on the East Side with high-rise buildings. The buyers are a joint venture formed by the Mendik Organization, which owns or manages more than 10 million square feet of office space in Manhattan, and M. J. Raynes, president of M. J. Raynes Inc., a real-estate business in Manhattan. Non-eviction Plans Proposed The purchasers said they planned to offer the apartments for sale as cooperatives or condominiums under non- eviction plans.