What was going on when I was born?

FRIDAY, MAY 3, 1985 International France opposed the key trade plan that President Reagan took to the economic summit meeting in Bonn of the world's seven leading industrial democracies. President Francois Mitterand told Mr. Reagan he could not agree to set a date for early next year to begin worldwide negotiations to eliminate barriers to free trade. [Page A1, Column 6.]

The Communists who rule China have accommodated to fast food and Coca-Cola and disco. Now they are turning their hand to golf. A game that has not been played in China since the days of wooden-shafted clubs made a comeback today at a gathering in the valley of the Ming Tombs, 25 miles north of here. As part of a tourist development, a Japanese company has begun laying out an 18-hole course within a fairway or two of the mausoleums of 13 emperors of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644).

In the second defeat in two days for the White House and the Republican leadership, the Senate today approved an amendment to the 1986 budget package that eliminates any additional money for the military except to keep up with inflation. The amendment was strongly opposed by President Reagan, who originally sought a 6 percent increase on top of a rise to make up for inflation. He and the Republican Senate leaders had agreed on a compromise military increase of 3 percent above inflation. While the Senate budget debate has at least a week and many amendments to go, the two defeats indicated the difficulties faced by the Republican leadership and the White House in assembling a deficit-reduction package. Signal to President In the House, Democrats have reached an informal consensus that they say might resolve the long, bitter dispute over the future of the MX missile. [Page A18.] The vote in the Senate today appeared to signal a backlash against the rapid military buildup the President has pursued since taking office in 1981. Both Democrats and Republicans, who have generally supported the buildup, seemed to be saying that it has to stop, or at least slow down.

Under this heading, The Times amplifies articles or rectifies what the editors consider significant lapses of fairness, balance or perspective. A dispatch from Washington on Wednesday, quoting a telephone interview with Henry A. Kissinger, abridged his remarks in some editions in a way that impaired perspective.

Reversing its position, the Treasury Department is recommending that all workers be required to pay taxes on a small portion of the health insurance benefits their employers pay, Administration officials said today. They said this was one of dozens of tax policy recommendations that President Reagan has taken with him to review during his European trip. They said that the Treasury was receiving daily communications from Secretary James A. Baker 3d, who is traveling with the President, indicating what decisions the President had made on taxes, and that a final proposal for revamping the nation's tax system would probably be sent to Congress the week after next. The Treasury is recommending that the first $25 a month of employer-paid health insurance premiums should be taxable to workers and that most other fringe benefits should go untaxed, the officials said.

Uniroyal Inc.'s board of directors met in a special session yesterday to study a buyout offer from the Ethyl Corporation, according to Wall Street sources, but the negotiations between the two chemical companies were said to have broken off. The sources said Uniroyal, a producer of tires and chemicals based in Middlebury, Conn., is studying alternatives, including a management-led leveraged buyout. Neither Ethyl nor Uniroyal would comment. The Wall Street sources, who asked not to be named, say Ethyl was offering to pay $21 a share, or about $713 million, for the 33.95 million shares of Uniroyal, a company that recently claimed victory in a proxy fight with the investor Carl C. Icahn. But they said the talks might have been scuttled when Ethyl became concerned about not being able to sell Uniroyal's tire business to a third party.

Few spots in the city are so beloved by New Yorkers as Central Park. It is an 843-acre oasis of forests, meadows and water on an island where people live 64,000 to the square mile. For many of the park's 14 million yearly visitors, it is a place to play, to indulge in hobbies and exercise, to relax, watch people or enjoy an outing with friends or family. It is also a place for nature lovers, lovers of sport, and just plain lovers. In the shade of its 25,000 large trees or beside its 150 acres of water, the park is a refuge from the steel-and-concrete world of Manhattan. Like an antique jewel in a modern setting, Central Park is a pastoral, 19th-century fantasy perched in the heart of late-20th-century urban civilization. As the air turns warm and flowers bloom, the park becomes a smorgasbord of things to do and see. This weekend, there will be Maypole celebrations, a kite festival, and bike and walking races. There will also be jazz concerts and folk dancing, walking tours and nature programs, model-boat regattas and many other activities that are features of park life on spring and summer weekends. There are clubs and classes for runners and lawn bowlers, birdwatchers and gardeners, and a host of events for children. Visitors can explore the park by bike, skates, carriage, on horseback or by boat, not to mention on foot.

House Democratic leaders appeared to be moving today toward reversing their opposition to aiding the rebels who seek the overthrow of the Nicaraguan Government. The development came a day after President Reagan ordered a trade embargo against Nicaragua, telling Congress that the Sandinistas posed an urgent threat to the security of the United States. Last week, the House voted to block all aid to the rebels. Although the embargo and the $14 million aid request for the rebels are separate issues, a congressional aide said, ''There is intense interest right now on what's happening in Managua.''

An article in Business Day on Monday about American bank lending to South Africa misidentified one company that chooses to lend neither to private companies nor public agencies in South Africa. It is the Bank of Boston Corporation.

Because of a technical error, an article on the Washington Talk page yesterday about Education Secretary William J. Bennett incompletely rendered one of his remarks in some editions. He said, ''I am not going to deal with the education establishment on the premise that I work for the educational establishment alone.''

Five police officers from the 106th Precinct in Queens, including a lieutenant assigned to guard against police brutality, were indicted yesterday on charges that prisoners in their custody were beaten and assaulted with an electric stun gun. The officers pleaded not guilty, and lawyers for the men said in court that they would be exonerated of charges that they tortured four men in February and April who had been arrested on charges of selling small amounts of marijuana. All of the officers were indicted on at least one felony charge of assault in the second degree and other felony and misdemeanor counts. If convicted of assault, the most serious charge leveled at them, they face up to seven years in prison.

After an absence of a century, the wild turkey has been restored to the forests of the Northeast. The birds are prospering, to the surprise of wildlife biologists. ''The wild turkey is more adaptable and has done much better than biologists originally thought they would,'' said Brian Miller, wildlife biologist in Connecticut's Wildlife Bureau. Crucial to the turkey's comeback, biologists say, has been the gradual return of woodland to the Northeast over the last 100 years. Since the Civil War, the region's evolution from an agrarian to an urban and industrial society has allowed large stands of forest to replace farmland that had been cleared.