What was going on when I was born?

Henry Cabot Lodge, the articulate Massachussetts Republican who was United States delegate to the United Nations, Ambassador to South Vietnam and a three-term Senator, died yesterday at his home in Beverly, Mass., after a long illness. He was 82 years old. At the United Nations from 1953 to 1960, Mr. Lodge, an energetic debater, engaged in ticklish diplomacy, helping bring the Soviet Union into negotiations on the peaceful use of outer space and making behind-the-scenes efforts that helped bring about a cease-fire during the 1956 British, French and Israeli invasion of Egypt. In Saigon During Anti-Diem Coup As Ambassador in wartime Saigon in 1963-64 and again in 1965-67, Mr. Lodge was on hand for the generals' coup that, in late 1963, overthrew the Government of President Ngo Dinh Diem - although Mr. Lodge later contended that he and the Kennedy Administration had not worked for Mr. Diem's overthrow, as has been said in the Pentagon Papers and elsewhere. During his second tour in Saigon, in 1966, Mr. Lodge was involved in a peace effort that proved fruitless at a time when, he later said, United States bombing of North Vietnam was being ''conducted on a largely military basis without enough regard for its political and diplomatic implications.'' He went on to serve as delegate to the Vietnam peace talks in Paris in 1969.

Treasury Secretary James A. Baker 3d promised Congress today that President Reagan would submit a specific tax proposal this spring that would reduce taxes paid by individuals and increase business taxes over all. Mr. Baker's pledge, as the House Ways and Means Committee opened hearings on tax legislation, was the first authoritative notice that the President would endorse and fight for something more than the general principles of what he calls ''tax simplification.'' The commitment added to the political momentum that has been growing in the last couple of weeks toward a complete overhaul of the Federal income tax system. Presidential Announcement Mr. Baker said the President would announce in the next four to six weeks the form his submission to Congress would take. He said it would include ''detailed specifications,'' possibly in the form of suggested revisions in the comprehensive, two-volume proposal made by the Treasury in November or possibly as an actual piece of proposed legislation.

PARIS THERE are few people who can comment on a 60-year career. But Charlotte Perriand, the French designer who was born in 1903 and was, from 1927 to 1937, an associate of the architects Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, is one who can. Although she doesn't particularly like to. ''Just pretend that I am no longer here,'' said the energetic and youthful-looking Mrs. Perriand recently, speaking French to a visitor as she walked through ''Charlotte Perriand: Un Art de Vivre.'' The retrospective of her work is currently on view at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris and continues through April 1.

When the opening bell sounded this morning, telephones to the foreign currency traders here at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange were ringing off their hooks, with investors rushing to place orders. The dollar's plunge today and Tuesday, following its leap to new records on Monday, has sent trading volume soaring on the Merc's International Monetary Market. The market is a 13-year-old division of the Merc, where futures contracts for gold, 90-day Treasury bills and West German marks, British pounds, Japanese yen and Swiss and French francs are traded. In addition, the Merc trades option contracts on pounds, marks and Swiss francs.

''What we have to agree is to negotiations in Cairo under the hospitality of the Egyptian President, with American participation, and with a Jordanian-Palestinian delegation without the P.L.O. - without declared members of the P.L.O. - and an Israeli delegation - and let's move ahead.'' - Prime Minister Shimon Peres of Israel. (A1:2.)

Prime Minister Shimon Peres told Egyptian envoys here today that Israel supported President Hosni Mubarak's call for direct talks between Israel and a delegation of Jordanians and Palestinians, Government officials said. The Prime Minister's spokesman, Uri Savir, told reporters that Mr. Peres was ready for direct talks with Jordan or with a Jordanian-Palestinian delegation, provided it did not include known members of the Palestine Liberation Organization. In a speech delivered in English this evening in Natanya to the Women's International Zionist Organization, Mr. Peres outlined what he felt all the parties in the Middle East had to do. 'For Them to Do' ''What we have to agree,'' he said, ''is to negotiations in Cairo under the hospitality of the Egyptian President, with American participation, and with a Jordanian-Palestinian delegation without the P.L.O. - without declared members of the P.L.O. - and an Israeli delegation - and let's move ahead.''

The retiring commander of American military forces in Central America said today that the Nicaraguan rebels were incapable of overthrowing the Sandinista Government in ''the foreseeable future'' regardless of whether they received American aid. But the commander, Gen. Paul F. Gorman, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that support of the rebels should be resumed, along with diplomatic measures, to keep up economic and political pressure and ''bring the Sandinistas to a reckoning.'' Asked after the hearing how long such pressure would take to produce changes in the Nicaraguan Government, he replied, ''Years.'' Nicaragua Proposes Meeting General Gorman, who will turn over his command on Saturday, said that while most of Nicaragua's neighbors had unofficially told him that they would favor a change in the Sandinista Government, the rebel forces were too small and ill trained to accomplish such an objective.

A top official of the Southland Corporation was convicted yesterday of a charge that he had committed proxy fraud by not disclosing to shareholders that he had been involved in a conspiracy to bribe New York State tax officials to fix sales-tax cases. But the official was acquitted of the count in his indictment actually charging him with involvement in the conspiracy. The seemingly inconsistent verdict against Clark J. Matthews 2d in Federal District Court in Brooklyn was explained by some parties in the case as possibly resulting from statute-of- limitation factors.

THE American household is changing, but the strength of its dream of owning a house remains undiminished. In an age of high interest rates and high construction costs, the circumstances of much of the population - smaller families, fragmented families or no family at all - would seem to favor owning smaller, easier-to- maintain condominiums or cooperatives or living in rental apartments. But the prospect of owning and living in a freestanding house on its own land is an enduring element in American aspirations. According to a recent New York Times/CBS News Poll and interviews with owners and renters across the country, house ownership is still a goal of a majority of Americans, as it was of earlier generations. ''I'm old-fashioned,'' said Eddie Mulholland of Jefferson City, Mo. ''I believe a house is the family dream. My goals in life have always been to get a college education and then get a family and a house.''

A sharp decline in the dollar yesterday led to large increases in short- and long-term interest rates in the credit markets. By late in the day, rates for Treasury bills were higher by as much as a quarter percentage point, with the six-month issue bid at 8.82 percent, up from 8.45 percent on Tuesday. In the long-term bond market, prices of actively traded Treasury issues fell about 2 points, or $20 per $1,000 bond, with the 11 1/4 percent issue due in 2015 offered at 94 5/8 to yield 11.91 percent. The yield of the new 11 1/4 percent Treasury bond issue - which is closely watched as a benchmark for yields on corporate bonds and home mortgages - has increased nearly 3/4 percentage point since Feb. 14, when the issue traded with a yield of about 11.20 percent. The price of the new long-term bond has fallen by nearly six points since that time.

Major European central banks sold dollars from their reserves today and drove the value of the dollar down for the second consecutive day. The two-day drop follows the dollar's ascent to ever-higher records throughout most of February. Dealers and bankers estimated that five European central banks sold $1 billion or more. The banks timed their move to take advantage of the dollar's slide on Monday in United States trading, which followed a statement by Paul A. Volcker, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, that attempts to drive down the dollar had been too weak and ill coordinated.

Pan American World Airways' settlement with its pilots' union includes a major concession by the pilots enabling the airline to stretch out deferred raises over the 32 months of the agreement, according to sources close to the negotiations. The raises amount to 25.7 percent. The sources also said that the agreement reached Tuesday with the Master Executive Council of the Air Line Pilots Association, representing 1,478 Pan Am pilots, puts pressure on the Transport Workers Union to reach a similar agreement on deferred raises with the carrier.