What was going on when I was born?

Investors who have committed to help finance T. Boone Pickens's bid for control of of the Unocal Corporation said yesterday that they doubted they would have to live up to their obligations in light of Unocal's latest defensive maneuver. Mr. Pickens, however, insisted that the commitments for $3 billion he had received from 139 investors were ''still binding.'' As the most active stock on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday, Unocal declined $1.375, to $46.625, amid growing investor belief that, for now at least, the California oil giant has thrown an effective roadblock in Mr. Pickens's path. But many Wall Street observers believe that the battle is only in the first round, with a counteroffer likely from the Mesa Partners II, the investor group headed by Mr. Pickens that already owns 13.6 percent of Unocal. Mr. Pickens said he would visit New York to meet with lawyers and investment bankers on a possible next move. Meanwhile, a source close to Unocal said that perhaps by the end of the week Unocal might make another move to block Mr. Pickens's tender offer or, at least, force him to bid higher for control.

National Intergroup Inc., the parent of the National Steel Corporation that has sought avidly to diversify away from heavy manufacturing, said yesterday that its merger agreement with the Bergen Brunswig Corporation had been terminated. The Pittburgh-based company said deteriorating earnings in the first quarter of 1985 and the restatement of its 1984 net income had contributed to Bergen Brunswig's decision to back away from the acquisition, which had already been approved by both companies' shareholders and was within a month of being completed. Separately, the company said it expects to show a loss of about $1 a share for the first quarter. ''From the time we announced the merger in October we were having to recast the profitability of the steel business in the fourth and first quarter,'' Howard M. Love, chairman of National Intergroup, said in a telephone interview.

The disposable, after-tax income of Americans fell by five-tenths of 1 percent in March after a February decline of eight-tenths of 1 percent, the Commerce Department said today. Both months were hurt by computer-caused delays that deprived Americans of $6.7 billion in Federal income tax refunds in the two months. The declines in disposable income sent consumer spending tumbling by five-tenths of 1 percent last month, the biggest decline in more than a year, the department said.

A chart in Business Day on April 9 with an article on the profits of large military contractors incompletely identified the data sources. The United States Census Bureau provided only the figure for average return on equity for manufacturing, mining and trade corporations. The rest of the chart was compiled from 1984 annual reports.

Eleanor Bunce remembers sitting on a love seat in the foyer with a Spanish painter. The visitor was intrigued by the large buttons on her dress. ''He wanted to know if they were edible,'' Mrs. Bunce said recently, remembering her encounter half a century ago with Salvador Dali. Virgil Thomson recalls sitting down with Aaron Copland for an impromptu duet on the living-room piano. The two composers played to a bohemian audience who styled themselves ''Friends and Enemies of Modern Music.'' This salon of the international avant-garde revolved around an unusual setting - a suburban house in a decorous city. There, in 1930, on a quiet street of neo-Colonial homes, A. Everett (Chick) Austin Jr. built a wooden version of a stone and stucco Palladian- style villa. The classical, 16th-century-style exterior masked a first floor in the Baroque style and a second floor in the Bauhaus style.

Valerie Bergman had just bought a ticket to Des Moines for $178, round trip, the ''ultimate super saver'' fare, at the American Airlines office at Rockefeller Center. ''This trip wouldn't have happened if it hadn't been for the low fare,'' she said. Miss Bergman, a dancer, is visiting her family for the third time this year. Normally, she said, she would get home perhaps every other year, because the regular $600 round-trip fare was too dear.

One of the nation's leading biotechnology companies has told two California universities that it has ended its agreement to use their patents covering the fundamental techniques of genetic engineering. The company, the Cetus Corporation, sought to minimize the significance of its action, saying it was purely a business decision. Cetus pays $10,000 a year to use the techniques, plus a small amount of royalties on any products produced from them. But the universities are worried that the Cetus action might lead to a new legal showdown over the scope and validity of the important patents, which are held by Stanford and the University of California, San Francisco.

Companies A.T.&T. plans to reduce the price of long-distance service by 5.6 percent on June 1. That is when households will begin paying local phone companies a new long-distance access charge of $1 a month. The price cut would put further pressure on A.T.&T.'s competitors. A.T.&T. earnings rose 55.9 percent in the first quarter. (Page A1.)

In Little League, Bob Pelkey played second base in games against the Seth Thomas team. In high school, he worked afternoons at the Seth Thomas plant on South Main Street. And, following local tradition, when he graduated from high school he took a full-time job at the plant, which had given Thomaston its name in 1875. ''It was the heart of the town,'' Mr. Pelkey recalled.

President Reagan, warned that his $14 million aid package for Nicaraguan rebels will not pass Congress, has signaled his willingess to consider a compromise to avoid defeat, White House officials said tonight. ''The President is not willing to compromise on policy and not willing to compromise on dollars,'' a White House official said. ''He's prepared to talk compromise on timing.'' But there was an immediate indication that this might not be sufficient. In a major speech tonight, Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia, an influential Democrat who has long backed military aid to the Nicaraguan rebels, proposed a package devoted to humanitarian aid.

An apparently impulsive decision by President Reagan to grant a favor to a fellow head of government has drawn him into one of the most embarrassing and politically damaging episodes of his Administration. The episode, which threatens both Mr. Reagan's carefully nurtured relations with American Jews and his reputation as a master of public relations, began five months ago when he received Chancellor Helmut Kohl of West Germany for a meeting that included a discussion of Mr. Reagan's planned trip to West Germany this May. Kohl Stresses Anniversary At the session, Mr. Kohl stressed the importance West Germans attached to the 40th anniversary on May 8 of the surrender of Nazi Germany in World War II, and he urged Mr. Reagan to visit a military cemetery for American and German war dead as a symbol of reconciliation. Mr. Reagan agreed. Within 24 hours, everyone realized that there were no American graves in German military cemeteries. But by all accounts, the momentum for Mr. Reagan's visit to the military cemetery in Bitburg began at the meeting with Mr. Kohl.

Lebanon's national unity Cabinet resigned today, hours after Shiite militiamen and their allies took full control of West Beirut in a night of fierce fighting. The clashes in the predominantly Moslem sector of the capital, the worst in more than a year, resulted in the defeat of the Sunni militia known as the Mourabitoun. The victors were the Shiite Amal and Druse militias. The crushing of the Mourabitoun and the subsequent resignation of the Cabinet widened the division in Moslem ranks and further deepened Lebanon's decade-old national crisis. 'Colossally Grave' Situation Prime Minister Rashid Karami, himself a Sunni Moslem, described the new violence as a ''horrific nightmare'' and said the situation in the country had become ''colossally grave.''