What was going on when I was born?

President Reagan has authorized American negotiators to explore an accord with the Soviet Union in which the Russians could have an advantage in strategic missiles in return for allowing the United States to keep its advantage in long-range bombers, his national security adviser said today. Discussing the instructions given to the negotiating team, which left for Geneva today, the security adviser, Robert C. McFarlane, said, ''I have to say I have never seen instructions that provided any negotiators with greater latitude for serious give-and-take.'' But Mr. McFarlane indicated that the flexibility lay primarily in seeking curbs in two of the three sets of negotiations that will begin next week - on strategic weapons and on medium- range nuclear forces. No Curbs on 'Star Wars' In the third area, covering the Administration's plans for research into strategic defensive weapons, popularly known as ''Star Wars,'' Mr. McFarlane said the instructions did not permit negotiation of any curbs.

Pausing frequently to contain his emotions, William Shawn, the editor of The New Yorker for 32 years, told his fellow staff members yesterday that ''we were not asked for our approval, and we did not give our approval'' to the decision to sell the magazine to S. I. Newhouse. ''The editorial staff was not a party to these negotiations,'' he told a large group of writers, editors and artists assembled in a hallway at the magazine's offices at 25 West 43d Street. ''Nor were the views of the editorial staff solicited during these negotiations.'' After making the brief statement, which brought tears to many eyes, Mr. Shawn quickly returned to his office. The tone of regret in his statement was widely shared by many in the corridor, and underscored a general belief that the sale was a betrayal of the 77-year- old Mr. Shawn, a legendary figure in the literary world, by the magazine's board of directors.

Carlos Silva had almost no customers today at the Gila Auto Supply. Ray Ewing, a retired copper miner, could not cross the border to get his usual $2 haircut in neighboring Naco in the Mexican state of Sonora, and the Rev. John Ellitson had to cancel his Thursday night prayer meeting at the Mexican Baptist Church over the border. These are some of the small victims of the latest round of tension along the porous United States-Mexico line. Last Saturday night the United States Customs Service abruptly shut down nine small and remote border crossings from Texas to California, saying drug traffickers had threatened to kidnap or harm customs workers.

The Shawmut Bank of Boston, the third-largest bank in Massachusetts, disclosed today that it had failed to report some international cash transactions and had improperly exempted some of its customers from Federal currency-reporting regulations. In a statement, the Shawmut Bank said it had discovered the errors last month after the Bank of Boston pleaded guilty to failing to report $1.2 billion in cash transfers with Swiss banks and was fined $500,000, a record amount. The Bank of Boston has since also said that it improperly exempted businesses of a local organized crime family from the currency-reporting rules. In its statement, the Shawmut Bank said it had failed to report $162 million in cash transfers since 1980 with seven foreign banks, including banks in Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Canada and Switzerland. The statement said 27 customers, including schools, churches, hospitals, airlines and commercial companies, had been improperly placed on the bank's list of concerns exempted from the reporting rules. The bank would not identify them except to say they were longtime clients.

The White House criticized the Republican- controlled Senate Budget Committee today, saying it was ''marching in the wrong direction'' by agreeing to cut the military budget while sparing domestic programs. If the committee does not make an about-face, said Larry Speakes, the White House spokesman, President Reagan ''is prepared to go to the people in order to carry our message forward.'' The committee moved this week to reduce the President's 1986 military budget by almost $11 billion and then refused to endorse many of Mr. Reagan's proposals to cut nonmilitary spending or eliminate programs. Goal Would Be Unmet By Thursday night, when the committee recessed until next week, Democrats and several Republicans on the committee were moving toward approving an across-the-board freeze on spending that would fall short of Senate Republican goals for reducing the budget deficit. While about $11.3 billion in projected nonmilitary spending was cut, the committee rejected about $21.1 billion of further reductions offered by its chairman, Senator Pete V. Domenici, Republican of New Mexico.

A high official in India said yesterday that the Government would file suit in the United States on behalf of all victims of the gas leak at the Union Carbide Corporation plant in Bhopal, India, last December. The Indian Consulate in New York said that a Minneapolis law firm, Robins, Zelle, Larson & Kaplan, had been ''retained by the Indian Government to file a complaint.'' The consulate said, however, that the Government had not reached a final decision about filing suit. Talmiz Ahmed, a spokesman for the consulate, indicated that the Indian Government had been planning to file suit within the next few days in order to be included in a pretrial hearing scheduled for Tuesday on dozens of Bhopal lawsuits.

A 33- year-old Arizona automobile mechanic who was given three hearts in 46 hours of marathon surgery died here at 2:20 P.M. today. The death of the mechanic, Thomas Creighton, was attributed to a complication described as shock lung and to subsequent heart failure, Dr. Jack C. Copeland, leader of the surgical team at the University Medical Center, said at a news conference. Mr. Creighton's death followed one of the most extraordinary series of operations in the annals of medicine. One of those operations, the implantation of a mechanical heart that was untested in humans, drew both harsh criticism and warm praise. Officials of the Food and Drug Administration, which has jurisdiction over experiments with artificial devices, immediately criticized Dr. Copeland for implanting the mechanical heart without agency approval.

The New Yorker magazine, a proudly independent arbiter of good taste in fine fiction, reportage and humor for more than 60 years, agreed yesterday on a sale to Samuel I. Newhouse Jr. for $142 million. In an announcement from The New Yorker's offices in Manhattan, the magazine's directors said they had voted unanimously to approve the offer of Mr. Newhouse, whose publishing empire includes 26 newspapers, the Conde Nast magazines - Vogue, House & Garden, Vanity Fair, Glamour, Gourmet, Self, and GQ - as well as Random House, the book publishing company. In announcing the proposed sale, the New Yorker's directors said the Newhouse interests had guaranteed the continued independence of the magazine, and said present editors would be retained. But many employees, including William Shawn, The New Yorker's 77-year-old editor, objected strongly. Seen as Virtually Assured Even so, investment banking sources close to the transaction said the sale was virtually assured.

A car-bomb killed at least 62 people and wounded 200 today in a densely populated Shiite Moslem suburb of Beirut, Lebanese officials said. The blast destroyed a five-story building only 10 yards from the residence of a prominent Shiite clergyman, Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, the spiritual leader of the Party of God, a Shiite fundamentalist group. The organization proclaims allegiance to the religious leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and his pan-Islamic revolution.

A weatherbeaten house of whitewashed brick just down the road from the large Belgian Air Base here contains a new cafe, called the Florennade. It was opened by a group of young antinuclear activists from elsewhere in this country who hope it will become a center of local opposition to the expected installation nearby of 48 American cruise missiles. But Florennes, an economically depressed town of 11,500 set among gentle, pastoral hills in southern Belgium, is not the kind of place where what has come to be known as the ''peace movement'' gets a very warm reception. Indeed, unlike such other installation sites as Greenham Common in Britain, which became the focal point of a vigorous, national antinuclear movement, Florennes has reacted to the probable arrival of nuclear weapons with calm, with acceptance, even with signs of welcome. The response comes despite persistent efforts by both a tiny corps of local pacifists and more numerous antinuclear activists from outside the region to stir resistance to NATO's build-up of medium-range nuclear missiles in Europe.

Iran said Iraqi warplanes raided cities and towns in western Iran today, killing or wounding 400 people in the city of Piranshahr alone. Both sides reported that Iranian forces had shelled Basra, a southern Iraqi port and provincial capital. The fighting was the heaviest reported in five days of increased border clashes. The two countries have been at war since September 1980.

For a few months, a glow of near-invincibility seemed to surround Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. His promises to revamp industry, eliminate corruption and forge a new national unity stirred hope even among the cynical in India. But this week, the results of the latest parliamentary election brought India back to some familiar realities. Instead of the 80 percent electoral sweep he scored in December, Mr. Gandhi and the Congress (I) Party won 57 percent of the seats at stake in state legislative elections that were held in 11 of India's 21 states and one union territory. More sobering was the fact that the party failed to make inroads in the opposition areas of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, where two charismatic Chief Ministers are now in an improved position to challenge Mr. Gandhi. The party also fell sharply behind its 1980 showing in the heavily industrial state of Maharashtra and even in Uttar Pradesh, in the Hindi- speaking heartland that has long been its power base.