What was going on when I was born?

RICHARD W. STEVENSON ABC has its problems, but the network that Capital Cities Communications Inc. is acquiring is a far cry from the laggard it was for so many years, television people say. According to industry analysts, American Broadcasting Companies Inc. was able to negotiate the terms of Capital Cities' $3.5 billion takeover from a position of financial strength and professional respect within broadcasting circles. ''They're in strong financial condition, and I don't think they did this out of weakness,'' said Fred Anschel, an analyst at Dean Witter Reynolds Inc. ''Their only vulnerability is that their prime-time ratings are down, but that happens from time to time. It's show biz.''

The Supreme Court today struck down the $1,000 legal limit on spending by political action committees on behalf of Presidential candidates in general elections. In a 7-to-2 opinion by Associate Justice William H. Rehnquist, the Court said that the spending limit violated the rights of free speech and association protected by the First Amendment. To forbid the expenditure of more than $1,000 to present political views, Justice Rehnquist said, ''is much like allowing a speaker in a public hall to express his views while denying him the use of an amplifying system.'' Years of Uncertainty The decision ended years of uncertainty over the spending limit, which is part of the law that established public financing for Presidential campaigns. In the last five years, two lower Federal courts declared the limit unconstitutional, and it has never been enforced. The decision today upheld the latest ruling, that of a special three- judge Federal District Court in Philadelphia.

President Reagan, ending a meeting with Canada's Prime Minister, said today that he hoped the change in Soviet leadership ''will open up new possibilities'' for better East-West relations. But he also strongly criticized past Soviet policies. The President said the ''painful realities'' of Soviet policies were shadowed by treaty violations as well as ''human beings persecuted, religions banned and entire democracies crushed.'' In Washington, the State Department announced that Secretary of State George P. Shultz planned to meet in mid-May with his Soviet counterpart, Andrei A. Gromyko. Officials said Mr. Shultz might use the occasion to discuss a meeting between Mr. Reagan and the new Soviet leader, Mikhail S. Gorbachev. (Page A15.)

The flooding from last spring's heavy rains, the worst here in years, destroyed Kenneth and Maureen Hay's home near the Pompton River. They lost $12,000 worth of furnishings and had no insurance coverage. But in some ways, they were luckier than many of their neighbors. They were renting their house. By summer, they had moved to a house in Edison, far from the flood plain, and had started to rebuild their lives. ''That was it for me,'' said Mrs. Hay recently. ''I wanted to get as far away as I could.''

Because of a computation error, the Weather Records and Forecasts printed in February incorrectly listed the rising and setting times for Venus and Mars. Setting times for Venus were two hours later than those shown. For Mars, times ranged from about two hours later to about half an hour later - for example, rising 59 minutes later on Feb. 1 and setting one hour and six minutes later, and rising 35 minutes later on Feb 27 and setting one hour and 41 minutes later.

College students from the New York metropolitan area setting off for school this fall will face costs as high as $15,000 or more, largely because of the need to raise faculty salaries, update curriculums and compensate for government cuts in student-aid funding. Increases will range, on the average, between 7 percent and 9 percent - about double the rate of inflation. Overall costs at Princeton University are rising 7.25 percent, to $14,940, for 1985-86. Last year, the school saw an increase of 7.9 percent. Yale University will cost $15,020, an increase of 7.6 percent, while students at Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers will pay $15,376, an increase of slightly more than 7 percent.

King Hussein of Jordan and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt met here today for talks on the stalled Arab-Israeli peace process, then made a surprise visit to Baghdad to express support for Iraq in its new fighting against Iran. Their sudden departure for the Iraqi capital came only three hours after President Mubarak arrived in Amman to discuss efforts to revive the long- stalled Arab-Israeli peace process. Egyptian and Jordanian officials said Mr. Mubarak came to Jordan to discuss with King Hussein the outcome of his talks with President Reagan and other senior Administration officials last week in Washington. The two leaders decided on their trip to Baghdad during their meeting at the King's downtown palace and a lunch later at King Hussein's official residence, officials said.

Until recently, a change in the overall alignment of the commercial broadcasting industry was unthinkable. ABC, CBS and NBC were perceived as monolithic entities, beyond the ordinary tides of business. But since early this year - when assorted interests cast acquisitive eyes on CBS - a sense of impending upheaval has been growing in the industry. And yesterday, when Capital Cities Communications Inc. moved to take control of ABC, the unthinkable happened. The question now confronting ABC executives is whether the surprising new arrangement with Capital Cities will signal a dramatic change. The role of momentum in the fortunes of a network is crucial. When things are moving forward and up, they tend to stay that way for a while, sometimes for years. The problem that has to be faced is whether ABC's recent slide in audience ratings will be temporary or sustained. Has success during the last eight years made the network sluggish? Can it bounce back? Network spokesmen say that it can. They point to new series such as ''Eye to Eye,'' which has its premiere Thursday, and several multimillion-dollar mini-series, including a drama special dealing with the Vietnam War years in this country, which are well along in the planning stage.

PHOENIX ''IS your heart ready to be implanted?'' Dr. Kevin Cheng was asked. It was 6 A.M. His first reaction, Dr. Cheng said later, was that the caller, Dr. Cecil Vaughn, a heart surgeon, was ready to implant the Phoenix artificial heart in a calf that day in an experiment that had been put off several times for various medical emergencies. But it was not a calf Dr. Vaughn had in mind. ''In a human,'' Dr. Vaughn said. The device was needed for a desperate attempt to save the life of Thomas Creighton, 120 miles away at the University of Arizona Medical Center in Tucson. Mr. Creighton had received a heart transplant the day before, but the donor heart had failed and his surgeons needed a way of keeping him alive until another human heart could be found.

TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 1985 Companies ABC agreed to be acquired by Capital Cities Communications for more than $3.5 billion. The deal would mark the first time a major television network has changed hands and would be the biggest non-oil acquisition in corporate history. The acquisition is subject to F.C.C. approval. (Page A1.) Analysts said ABC was able to negotiate the deal from a strong financial position. (D1.) The acquisition is a coup for Capital Cities, which would get a company four times its size. (D1.) Executives moved quickly to assure employees of the network that there would be few changes. (D24.) Texas Commerce Bancshares stock continued to fall after the company announced that it expected lower earnings in the first quarter, for the first time in 16 years. The bank holding company cited problem loans to the energy industry. (D1.)

Capital Cities Communications, long one of publishing and broadcasting's more aggressive acquirers, is making a notable addition to its collection of media properties. With its proposed takeover of ABC - four times its size and many times its renown - Capital Cities is joining the major leagues. It is also a coup for Thomas S. Murphy, Capital Cities' unorthodox chairman and for 20 years its architect. As the head of a national television network, Mr. Murphy becomes part of a media elite that has numbered such giants as CBS's William S. Paley, NBC's David Sarnoff and ABC's own Leonard H. Goldenson.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. TO demonstrate the relation between mass and velocity in his course on ''The Astronomical Perspective,'' Prof. Owen J. Gingerich once ended a class by getting in a small rocket-shaped car and propelling himself across the room and out through a pair of hidden doors. In ''Evolutionary Biology,'' the sociobiologist E. O. Wilson has teaching assistants dress as insects and flowers to perform an elaborate pollenation dance to the music of the ''March of the Sugar Plum Fairies.'' To give students a visual as well as aural feeling for ''Romantic Piano Music,'' Luise Vosgerchian brought in dancers to interpret the melody, rhythm and harmony of a short Liszt piano piece. These antics may sound more like high drama than higher education, but they are part of a tradition at Harvard College that teachers in the more popular courses of the Core Curriculum look for ways to entertain as well as to enlighten.