What was going on when I was born?

Behind the Reagan Administration's hard-won victory on the MX missile this week was mounting evidence of trouble for the Pentagon's military program. By framing the MX vote as a test of national resolve at the outset of arms control talks in Geneva, the Administration held at bay a number of forces that threaten not only the future production of the MX but other weapons as well. These forces include the pressures of the budget, partisan politics and skepticism about the Defense Department's military aims. Unraveling of MX Coalition Even as the House voted Thursday to release $1.5 billion for 21 more MX missiles, those forces were moving back with renewed strength.

President Reagan plans to tell Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone that unless Japan opens its markets to American goods he will be unable to prevent Congress from enacting retaliatory protectionist legislation, according to a senior White House official. ''We're putting the ball in their court; it's up to them to open up their markets,'' the official, who asked not to be identified, said today. The official said the President will make his views clear to Mr. Nakasone at a private meeting during the Bonn economic summit meeting that begins May 4. Congress 'Exasperated' The official said Mr. Reagan decided on such an approach after a White House meeting today in which he was told that the Congress was becoming ''exasperated'' and that ''something had to give.''

After agreeing on deep cuts in state income taxes and auto registration fees, Governor Cuomo and legislative leaders turned today to negotiations over spending. The level of aid to schools and local governments and the size and shape of a host of programs continued to delay agreement on a state budget that appears to have crept over the $39 billion mark. Legislative leaders said they doubted that voting on it could be started before the fiscal year ends at midnight Sunday. Likely to Be Lengthy The negotiations over spending were complicated and likely to be lengthy, but the tax deal reached just before midnight Thursday cleared the major obstacle toward agreement.

The South African authorities, facing a crisis of unrest in the country's black townships, today outlawed meetings by a major nonparliamentary opposition group and 28 other organizations. The bans, which affect the troubled Eastern Cape region and areas near Johannesburg, represent virtually a blanket prohibition on gatherings where the authorities are likely to be criticized. The key group affected by the ban, the United Democratic Front, is widely regarded as the Government's principal nonparliamentary opponent, apart from the outlawed African National Congress. Claims 1.5 Million Followers South African commentators said the order was almost certain to enhance the group's status and credibility among opponents of white minority rule, seeming to validate its claim to be a champion of the voteless majority against the authorities. The front says it has a following of 1.5 million people from 600 church, community, student and union groups.

At the age of 4 she came across a chess book and asked her father what it was. He explained, set up a chessboard and showed her the moves. A few months later she played in the Under-11 Championship in Budapest and won every game. She joined a chess club, studied chess with her father and some Hungarian grandmasters, and at 10 became a women's master. At the age of 11 she won the world's Under-16 chess championship. She soon started international tournament play, and at 12, as the only female entrant, she won a tournament in Bulgaria.

President Reagan today renewed his call for research on a space-based defense against nuclear missiles, invoking a line from the film ''Star Wars'' to rebut critics of the proposal. ''The Strategic Defense Initiative has been labeled 'Star Wars,' '' Mr. Reagan said in a speech to the National Space Club, ''but it isn't about war, it's about peace. It isn't about retaliation, it's about prevention. It isn't about fear, it's about hope, and in that struggle, if you will pardon my stealing a film line, the force is with us.''

''What Have I done to Deserve This?'' is an absolutely wonderful black comedy about a Spain few foreigners ever see - and, for that matter, not all Spaniards, since over the last five years or so Spanish mores have been changing at a dizzying speed. The film, which plays tonight and Sunday at the museum of Modern Art, wastes no time in letting us know that a new age has dawned. In the opening scene, Gloria (Carmen Maura), an attractive young cleaning woman, is going about her work in a Madrid kendo academy when a naked man beckons to her from the shower room. Unable to resist, in a trancelike state, fully dressed, she joins him for a heated session of desire under the shower. In the hands of a lesser director than Pedro Almodovar, or above all of a lesser actress than the extraordinary Miss Maura, the scene could have been simply squalid. In fact, it is funny, sad, realistic and touching all at the same time - as is the entire movie.

The threat that Nicaragua's Army may pose to other Central American countries has become a central issue in the debate over renewed United States financing for the rebels fighting to topple the Government. The Administration says the army is a juggernaut, far larger than the other Central American militaries and poised to attack its neighbors. But Democrats in Congress and some officials in the Administration say they believe the White House has overstated its case. At the same time, however, even many of the Administration's critics agree with two of President Reagan's other major concerns about Nicaragua: that many Sandinista leaders are Marxist-Leninists and that they have aided El Salvador's leftist guerrillas. Reagan Sees a 'War Machine' Mr. Reagan has accused the Nicaraguans of building ''a war machine'' that ''dwarfs the forces of all their neighbors combined.''

Secretary of State George P. Shultz has summoned the Soviet Ambassador, Anatoly F. Dobrynin, for a meeting Saturday to discuss the shooting of an American military liaison officer in East Germany, Administration sources said tonight. Mr. Shultz plans to seek further explanation of the events of last Sunday, when Maj. Arthur D. Nicholson Jr. was shot to death by a Soviet sentry in East Germany, the sources said. ''We feel that we're owed a bettter explanation and some indication that there won't be a reoccurrence,'' one Administration source said.

The Cairo flower hawkers have returned to the bustling city streets. The capital's gray, polluted winter sky is temporarily blue, fresh and clear. The chilly winds off the Nile have turned balmy. But not even spring can lift Egypt's gloom. The national and opposition press have been filled with grim news. The depression is reflected in press commentaries deploring the results of President Hosni Mubarak's trip to Washington earlier this month. President Mubarak denied reports that his trip was a failure. Egypt had made its case, Mr. Mubarak and other officials argued. A fair hearing was all Egypt had sought.

Ten days of clashes between Christian and Moslem forces around Sidon in southern Lebanon widened today to involve Palestinians in two refugee camps in that area. The latest fighting broke out between Christian militiamen in the village of Mieh Mieh and Palestinians in a neighboring camp of the same name, local radio stations reported.

Two Canadian C-130 Hercules transport planes collided in midair over the northern outskirts of Edmonton this evening and 10 crew members were presumed dead, a military spokesman said today. Col. Peter DeTracey, commander of Canadian Forces Base Namao, told reporters that there were no known survivors of the crash.