What was going on when I was born?

The new military ruler of the Sudan met separately today with the senior American, Egyptian and Saudi Arabian diplomats in Khartoum and reassured them he would keep the Sudan on a pro-Western course, State Department officials said. On his first day in office after ousting President Gaafar el-Nimeiry, Gen. Siwar el-Dahab summoned David H. Shinn, the charge d'affaires of the United States Embassy in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital. General Dahab ''expressed interest in the maintenance of continued good relations with the United States and appreciation for the assistance the United States has provided the Sudan in recent years,'' said Thomas Krajeski, a State Department spokesman. Disclosure Is Unusual Usually, the United States does not divulge the substance of diplomatic discussions. The rapidity with which Mr. Shinn's conversation with General Dahab was made public underscored an American effort to demonstrate public support for the new regime.

Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the Soviet leader, said today that he was prepared to hold a summit meeting with President Reagan and announced a moratorium on the deployment of Soviet medium-range missiles in Europe. He called on the United States to respond with a similar freeze. In his first major foreign policy statement since taking office a month ago, Mr. Gorbachev said the Soviet Union, ''starting with this day,'' would halt deployment of its SS-20 medium- range missiles, as well as ''other reply measures in Europe.'' He said the moratorium would hold until November, when Moscow would see whether the United States had responded by stopping deployment of Pershing 2 and cruise missiles in the nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

The sky was streaked pink over the East River and the streets were empty as far as the eye could see when the Rev. Frank Rafter celebrated the Easter miracle yesterday morning from the 86th-floor observatory of the Empire State Building. The 6 A.M. service, attended by parishioners from the Richmond Hill Baptist Church in Queens and the Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan, began with brisk winds whipping the red-and-gold choir robes, and clouds obscuring the dawn. But the sun broke through in time for the final strains of ''I Serve a Risen Saviour,'' and 25 voices rose as one, more than 1,000 feet above the silent city: He lives, He lives, salvation to impart! You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart. Frank Manriquez, a security guard at the Empire State Building, volunteered to report to work four hours early, as he had in years past, and was rewarded with a chorus of ''Happy Birthday'' midway through the service. ''If more people did things like this,'' said Mr. Manriquez, who will turn 60 today, ''we'd have a better world.''

The nation's senior military leaders have closed ranks in opposition to proposals that would dramatically reorganize the American military establishment. The leaders, Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, the secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force and the five members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, rejected assertions that the command structure is paralyzed by rivalries among the services, leading to wasteful spending and poor combat readiness. They made their positions known in letters to the Senate and House Armed Services committees. But a somewhat different viewpoint emerged from letters written by the nine operational commanders of combat forces. Some said their authority over buying weapons and supplies, training troops and preparing battle plans had been inhibited by the power of the individual services.

Imports are at record levels in many industries, hitting jobs and profits and spurring widespread demands for protection. Makers of everything from shoes and copper wire to paint brushes and castor oil are actively seeking higher tariffs or import ceilings to preserve their markets. Industries that have already won protection, such as textiles and steel, want more. Many have become interested in proposals before the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee to levy up to a 20 percent tax on all imports, a so-called import surcharge. The tax would raise prices of imports, thus chilling demand for them.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which is negotiating a new contract with 36,000 bus and subway workers, is pressing for 72 changes in work rules and pay practices. It says the new procedures would allow the agency to cut costs and increase employee efficiency and productivity. But the Transport Workers Union, which represents most of the transit workers, is resisting much of the plan. It calls it part of a management effort to take back essential workers' rights won through arduous struggle. The issue became a point of sharp dispute recently, when Governor Cuomo and the State Legislature, over the objections of the M.T.A., enacted a law that allows the transit dispute to go to binding arbitration if the talks reach an impasse. Robert R. Kiley, the M.T.A. chairman, said this would reduce the chances of winning the work-rule changes; Mr. Cuomo strongly denies this.

The White House today dismissed the statement by Mikhail S. Gorbachev that he was halting deployment of nuclear missiles aimed at Western Europe as an attempt to maintain Soviet nuclear superiority. The new Soviet leader had said in an interview with the Communist Party newspaper Pravda that the freeze on medium range missiles would last until November. Mr. Gorbachev also said he was ready to meet President Reagan. Larry Speakes, the White House spokesman, said at a news conference that Mr. Gorbachev's statement on a summit meeting was a minor part of the interview and that a time and place for the meeting had still not been determined.

First there was GQ, and then there was M. Now there is MGF - the latest ''initial'' magazine to appeal to men's fashion sense and vanity. According to publishing executives, there is good business in this alphabet soup. These, as well as other magazines, are satisfying a growing demand for fashion know-how and personal advice among men, and they are providing eager advertisers a medium in which to sell their wares to image-conscious men. With an eye toward capturing a part of this potentially lucrative market, each initial magazine has its own niche. MGF is aiming to appeal to the under-30 male reader. The April issue - its first - offers readers advice on ''Choosing the right ties for the striped shirt,'' provides ''A man's guide to her body'' and asks, ''Are you man enough for a manicure?''

Dr. Andy P. Morley sends a quarterly newsletter to each of his patients that offers information on treating the flu, handling high blood pressure and generally staying ''out of my office.'' He says it helps his patients, in the Atlanta suburb of Decatur, to hold down the cost of health care and helps his business at the same time. Dr. L. Sam Musallam keeps his Oklahoma City office open until 9 P.M. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, he says, so ''the mothers don't miss work and the kids don't miss school.'' His waiting room is comfortably furnished, ''like a living room,'' he says, adding: ''People are doctor-shopping. You just have to compete.'' Doctors, facing what is increasingly described as a glut of physicians, are marketing their services as never before. In the most noticeable aspect of this trend, some have even brought their offices to their patients, opening free-standing clinics in suburban shopping malls. These clinics, virtually unheard of 10 years ago, are booming. Experts say family physicians, obstetricians, pediatricians and internists, the doctors people turn to first when they need health care, have had to try a variety of new approaches to keep up.

The newly built outdoor set of plaster and plywood - a lifesize copy of Manhattan's Chinatown - rises from the raw earth of the 32-acre movie studio, two dozen neon signs flashing garishly. Fields and a small wood surround six sound stages crammed with sets for four movies. There is no smog and the temperature on a February day is 67 degrees. It might be southern California in 1935. It is, instead, Wilmington, N.C., in 1985. Although it is too early to call North Carolina or Florida or South Carolina or Texas the new Hollywood, Dino De Laurentiis's North Carolina Film Corporation is symptomatic of changes that are stripping California of its fourth largest industry. ''We are losing $1 billion a year in feature film production alone,'' said Lisa Rawlins, director of the California Film Office, which was established by the state last January to try to keep film makers here.

Under this heading, The Times amplifies articles or rectifies what the editors consider significant lapses of fairness, balance or perspective. An article in SportsMonday on March 11 about the career of the heavyweight boxer Larry Holmes reported his anger over several racial incidents that he said had surfaced around the time of his victory in a 1981 title bout over Gerry Cooney.

MONDAY, APRIL 8, 1985 Companies Mesa Partners is seeking control of Unocal. Mesa, an investment group controlled by T. Boone Pickens, is offering $54 a share for 64 million shares. Combined with the 23.7 million shares it already has, the group would have 51 percent of Unocal's shares outstanding if its bid is successful. (Page D1.)