What was going on when I was born?

As spring reaches north into Newfoundland this month, the peak of the iceberg season is under way. And the job of tracking the icebergs in the North Atlantic's busiest shipping lanes falls to a little- known Coast Guard unit based here, the International Ice Patrol. The patrol was created after the luxury liner Titanic rammed a small iceberg 73 years ago this month, punching a hole in her reinforced steel hull. More than 1,500 lives were lost when the liner sank.

In a new effort to improve taxi service in New York City, Mayor Koch has proposed increasing the number of yellow medallion cabs by 1,200, or 10 percent of the existing number. Under the plan, which the Mayor has offered to the City Council, the added medallions would be made available through an auction. Later, the city would consider whether to auction more medallions, in increments of 1,200. The plan, many of whose details remain to be worked out, blends two earlier Koch proposals that have found little support. It was outlined in a letter to the head of the City Council's Transportation Committee.

President Reagan today announced a major reorganization of the White House that, while affirming Donald T. Regan's primacy as White House chief of staff, also grants powerful roles to two key advisers from Mr. Reagan's first term. Under the arrangement, Mr. Regan, James A. Baker 3d and Edwin Meese 3d will supervise virtually all aspects of domestic and economic policy through two new councils. The move would eliminate seven current Cabinet councils, each headed by a different Secretary. In its place, policy matters involving those officials and other White House aides will flow through the new councils to Mr. Regan.

The White House announced today that President Reagan planned to lay a wreath next month at a cemetery for German soldiers who fought Americans and other Allied troops in World War II. Larry Speakes, the White House spokesman, said the visit by Mr. Reagan to the Bitburg German military cemetery was in line with the theme of reconciliation Mr. Reagan plans to seek during his European trip from April 30 to May 10. A part of the trip coincides with the 40th anniversary of the German surrender to the Allies. Mr. Reagan has already drawn criticism from Jewish groups for his decision not to visit the Dachau concentration camp in Germany. The disclosure today of the cemetery visit stirred a new burst of critical remarks.

The scientists said they believed the measurements, across perhaps 230,000 miles of space, were accurate to within an inch, 10 times more accurate than any made in the past. The astronomers used a special 80- lens telescope at the Mount Haleakala Observatory of the University of Hawaii to receive the new short-pulse laser beams. The new measurements, combined with those being made with increasing accuracy from Texas and France, are providing detailed records of day-to- day changes in the rotation of the Earth and the slight wobbles it makes as it spins on its axis. They are also recording lunar motions caused by subtle gravitational effects arising from the influences of relativity.

Secretary of State George P. Shultz, in a comprehensive economic address three weeks before the Bonn economic summit meeting, said today that achieving a stronger world economy required action by all of the industrial countries. ''Growth in the world economy is the result of interaction among sound national policies,'' Mr. Shultz told an audience of about 400 - including those watching him on closed-circuit TV - at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. He had numerous recommendations for Western Europe, Japan and even the developing world, which will not be represented in Bonn. But he did not spare the United States when pointing to policy failures. The United States, he declared, must make substantial cuts in its budget deficit - without raising taxes - and must resist protectionist tendencies, which he suggested have become dangerously strong.

FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 1985 International An unexpected Israeli pullback in Lebanon occurred when Israeli forces withdrew from a Shiite-populated area where the troops have come under repeated attack. The withdrawal, from around the town of Nabatiye, places Israel's northern frontier settlements within range of guerrilla rockets. (Page A1, Col. 6.) Enver Hoxha, Albania's leader, died at the age of 76. He led Europe's most secretive and poorest country through more than 40 years of strict Stalinism. President Ramiz Alia, Mr. Hoxha's heir-apparent, is expected to emerge as the successor. (A1:3.)

Interest rates fell sharply yesterday in response to a surprising 1.9 percent decline in retail sales in March. The sharp drop in retail sales was seen by traders as confirmation that the economic expansion, now well into its third year, is faltering. Although forecasts of a recession are in a clear minority and other economic data show more strength than implied by the drop in sales, there have been enough signs of weakness to spark hopes that the Federal Reserve will adopt a more generous monetary policy that would push rates lower. Ripples from the retail sales data spread quickly throughout the financial markets. The combination of dimmer prospects for the American economy and lower interest rates contributed to a sharp drop in the foreign-exchange value of the dollar, which fell as much as 3 percent.

A judge today sent a 28-year-old man back to prison for a rape that his accuser said never occurred. Judge Richard L. Samuels of Cook County Circuit Court denied a motion by the man, Gary Dotson, to overturn his conviction for rape in 1979. Mr. Dotson had been free on $10,000 bond since a hearing April 4 when Cathleen Crowell Webb testified that she had made up the story that she had been raped. Judge Samuels told a packed courtroom in the Circuit Court branch of this Chicago suburb, ''Regretfully, I must deny the petition.'' He cited Illinois court precedents in cases involving recanted testimony.

THE Big Parade has begun, and it's time to get out there and watch. From points as far south as the Antarctic, birds are arriving in the metropolitan area. Some will stay until that much-studied but still mysterious migratory urge turns them around and sends them south in the fall; others will be here only long enough to rest and refuel before continuing north. The flights, which began while winter still had a firm grip here, are building toward a spectacular peak next month. By early June, it will all be over. While the flights are going on - and millions of birds are pouring into the area - a diligent birder will be able to rack up more than 100 species on a good day. But even the less industrious and the nonexpert may be able to spot a dozen species or more. One reason is that the three-state region lies squarely athwart the Atlantic Flyway, a sort of superhighway in the sky that birds have been using each spring and fall for milleniums.

The International Business Machines Corporation, reporting its first profit decline in more than three years, said yesterday that its net income in the first quarter fell 18 percent, to $986 million. Meanwhile, the computer company's revenues increased a scant 1.9 percent, to $9.77 billion, as its largest customers delayed purchases until a new generation of mainframe computers and disk drives are ready to be shipped in the second half of the year. I.B.M.'s announcement today interrupted three years of steady growth, but it came as no surprise. Midway through the quarter, company officials said that a combination of the strength of the dollar overseas and order delays while new products were introduced would make it ''very difficult'' to show any earnings growth in the first quarter.

Sales at the retail level plunged 1.9 percent in March from February's level, the steepest drop in more than seven years, the Government reported today. But analysts were split over whether the decline was a sign of growing economic weakness or simply a one-month fluke. The Commerce Department report showed that sales, after adjusting for seasonal factors, totaled $110.5 billion in March, down from the February level of $112.7 billion. The declines were widespread, led by a sharp 4 percent drop in auto sales, and smaller declines at furniture stores, department stores, grocery stores and restaurants.