What was going on when I was born?

FRIDAY, MAY 31, 1985 The Tax Revision Plan Federal financing of Presidential elections would be repealed under the Administration's tax plan. The end of the $1 checkoff on tax returns would radically alter the way Presidential campaigns have been paid for since 1976. [Page A1.] Treasury Secretary Baker was promised bipartisan help at the opening Congressional hearing on the tax plan. But sharp questioning foreshadowed months of debate over particular elements, particularly the proposed repeal of the deductibility of state and local taxes. [D16.] President Reagan appealed for support for the plan in stops chosen to reflect the rebellious spirit of colonial America and the present frustrations of middle America. [D17.]

The Suffolk County Executive has dropped his fight to stop the opening of the Shoreham nuclear power plant, according to opponents and supporters of the plant. A senior Suffolk County official said last night that the county executive, Peter F. Cohalan, had agreed that the county, in a change of position, would supervise a test of a plan for protecting Long Island residents in the event of an accident at the plant. In addition, Lilco has agreed to pay $131 million in back property taxes that the utility had withheld in protest against the county's opposition to the plant. The senior county official, who asked not to be identified, said that Mr. Cohalan was approving the test because he accepted new studies that showed that the area that would have to be evacuated in a nuclear emergency was not as large as the 20-mile zone the county previously demanded.

Through a combination of aggressive marketing and strong brand names like Ritz, Planters, Baby Ruth and Oreo, Nabisco Brands Inc. is considered one of the food industry's strongest and most attractive companies. Furthermore, the company has what every food company wants. ''They have shelf space clout,'' said William Maguire, a food analyst at Merrill Lynch & Company. On Wednesday, the big food company confirmed that it had had merger talks with R.J. Reynolds Industries, the nation's second-largest tobacco company. Nabisco did not elaborate and neither Robert M. Schaeberle, chairman, nor F. Ross Johnson, vice chairman, could be reached for comment yesterday.

Senior American and Jordanian officials said today that they expected the next step in the unfolding Middle East peace efforts to be an early meeting between the United States and a joint Jordan-Palestinian delegation to discuss how to arrange direct talks with Israel. King Hussein told a dozen Congressmen this morning that Yasir Arafat, the Palestine Liberation Organization leader, had told him he was willing to name Palestinians who are not P.L.O. members to the delegation but would like some of them to be from the Palestine National Council. The Council, which serves as a parliament for the P.L.O., iincludes members and nonmembers of the organization. According to participants at the Congressional meeting, King Hussein repeated the assertion he made Wednesday at the White House that the P.L.O., after repeatedly refusing to do so, was now willing to sit down at a peace conference with Israel and negotiate on the basis of two key United Nations Security Council Resolutions, 242 of 1967 and 338 of 1973.

Several employees of a man accused of spying for the Soviet Union are expected to be arrested on espionage charges in the next few days, law-enforcement officials said today. The officials, who asked not to be named, said some employees of a Virginia private detective agency would be accused of helping the owner, John A. Walker Jr., and two other members of his family to smuggle secret Navy documents to the Soviet Union. Suspect Identified as 'D' Documents released by prosecutors also identified a member of the purported spy ring who was assigned the code name ''D'' by Mr. Walker. A Government source said ''D'' is a retired Navy employee who is not related to the Walker family and lives on the West Coast. Although a suspect in the Federal investigation, the source said, ''D'' has not been arrested.

In 1968, Mary Kay Cosmetics Inc.'s business looked so promising that the then family-controlled company decided to cash in by selling the majority of its stock to the public. Now, 17 years later, with the direct sales approach to the cosmetic business in a slump, Mary Kay wants to return to private ownership. Yesterday, the management of the Dallas-based company, which sells cosmetics through 151,000 independent representatives throughout the United States and abroad, said it would offer stockholders a package of cash and subordinated debt for each of the 21 million shares, or 70 percent of the stock, outstanding. The company said the offer was worth $18.15 a share. But analysts valued the package at between $15 and $16 a share, which would give the deal a worth of between $315 million and $336 million. In trading yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange, Mary Kay's stock rose $1, to $12.625, on volume of about 426,000 shares.