What was going on when I was born?

FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 1985 The Economy The economy is growing at a 3.1 percent annual rate in the second quarter, according to the Commerce Department's ''flash'' estimate. The preliminary figure showed increased investment and buoyant consumer spending, as well as a reduced economic drag from imports. There was conjecture that the new figure might halt the recent decline in interest rates. The first quarter's growth was revised downward to a scant 0.3 of 1 percent. [Page D1.]

F.A.O. Schwarz, the 22-store retailer whose lavish toys and games have delighted children and their indulgent parents for more than a century, is being acquired by the Christiana Companies, a California real estate developer and investment company. Christiana will be Schwarz's third owner in 11 years. The announcement yesterday by Christiana and Franz Carl Weber International, parent of F.A.O. Schwarz, said that their boards had approved the all-cash purchase. The amount was not disclosed. Christiana said it would continue and even expand the toy retailer. John S. Roberts, Christiana's chairman, also said that ''some consideration may be given to closing some of the stores but we have no immediate plans for it.''

Senator Bob Packwood, chairman of the Finance Committee and the most influential Senator on tax matters, said today that he expected President Reagan to modify his tax revision plan to make it more favorable to middle-income taxpayers. Senator Packwood, an Oregon Republican, said at a news conference that tax officials in his state had calculated the effects of the President's proposals and had determined that ''a great many more middle-income taxpayers are adversely affected'' than the Administration had realized. ''We in Congress must concentrate in getting more and significant relief to our broad middle class,'' the Senator said. ''Without them, we won't have tax reform.''

The nation's economic activity is expanding in the second quarter at a moderate annual rate of 3.1 percent, after having virtually stalled in the first quarter, the Government said today. The Commerce Department's ''flash'' estimate showed increased business investment, continued buoyancy in consumer spending and a reduced economic drag from imports. It also showed that inflation abated in the spring. In another report today, the Labor Department said consumer prices rose in May by two-tenths of 1 percent, less than in April. [Page D12.] ''The worst of the slowdown probably is behind us, and we should be back on a higher growth path by summer's end,'' Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige said.

The Village Voice, the outspoken liberal weekly that has been owned by Rupert Murdoch since 1977, was sold yesterday to Leonard Stern, a wealthy businessman. Announcement of the sale was greeted with apprehension by The Voice's staff, many of whom said they regard Mr. Stern as highly conservative and antithetical to the newspaper's tradition. [Page D3.] Mr. Murdoch's News America Publishing Inc. said in a statement that The Voice had been sold for more than $55 million, which had been Mr. Murdoch's minimum asking price.

THREE of the legendary stars of jazz over the last four decades - Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Ella Fitzgerald -will share the spotlight this evening as the annual 10-day Kool Jazz Festival gets under way. Mr. Davis and his band will be at Avery Fisher Hall, Miss Fitzgerald at Carnegie Hall and Mr. Gillespie and his quintet will inaugurate a festival moonlight cruise on the Hudson River. All three have been frequent performers at the festival since it was founded in Newport, R.I., 31 years ago as the Newport Jazz Festival. Mr. Davis, who established a ''cool'' sound in jazz with his nine-piece groups in the late 1940's, has gone through a steady series of changes in approach since then. After retiring for five years in the 70's because of illness, he returned to performing in 1981. Since then, he has been moving his trumpet-playing into the context of contemporary pop music. His band at Avery Fisher Hall tonight at 8 will be the same as the one on his most recent album, ''You're Under Arrest'' - Bob Berg on saxophones, John Scofield on guitars, Robert Irving 3d on keyboards, Darryl Jones on electric bass, Steve Thornton on percussion, and Vincent Wilburn on drums.

The city's Department of Investigation has concluded in a report that Ralph J. Lamberti, now the Borough President of Staten Island, engaged in a conflict of interest when he helped a former business partner who was seeking to develop a shopping center on city-owned land, according to members of the Koch administration. At the time of the purported conflict three years ago, Mr. Lamberti was deputy borough president. The report, which is to be released today, is to be referred to District Attorney William L. Murphy of Staten Island for possible prosecution, administration officials said. In a statement issued by his office, Mr. Lamberti said: ''We're in the process of reviewing the draft document issued by the Department of Investigation. Our initial review indicates the report is inaccurate, incomplete, and its conclusions therefore are unfounded and untrue.'' The statement said Mr. Lamberti ''will have a more complete response'' today ''after further review.''

''In our minds and to a man we condemn hijacking or terrorism of any sort or nature, regardless of the perpetrators or the circumstances.

In an echo of the Chicken War of the 1960's between Europe and the United States over poultry exports, the White House fired a shot today in what threatens to become the Pasta War, having grown from what started out as a skirmish over citrus. President Reagan ordered that tariffs on imported pasta be increased sharply, to try to protect the $1.3 billion-a-year domestic pasta industry from rapidly rising imports, mostly from Italy. The United States won the Chicken War by showing that the European Economic Community was unduly subsidizing poultry exports to countries where American poultry companies were competing. The matter ended there with the United States given the right to take offsetting action against $26 million worth of European exports.

The Reagan Administration has told several friendly governments that if the 40 American hostages are freed unconditionally by the hijackers in Beirut, Israel will follow with the release of the 766 detainees, Administration officials said today. But the Administration was also said to have told diplomats that the United States will maintain its principle of not bargaining, or negotiating, or giving in to terrorist demands. Thus, the officials said, it is trying to convey to the Lebanese Shiite leader Nabih Berri through the foreign governments that the hijackers' demands can be met, but only if there is no attempt at formal linkage.

Because of a mechanical error, the Food Notes column in The Living Section on Wednesday omitted part of a book title. The book is ''Commonplace Book of Cookery'' by Robert Grabhorn and is published by the North Point Press of Berkeley, Calif.

In what officials viewed as evidence of a return of urban terrorism to El Salvador, 13 people, including four off-duty United States marines and two American businessmen, were shot dead at a San Salvador restaurant Wednesday night. At least 15 people were wounded in the attack, carried out by men armed with automatic rifles on a string of sidewalk cafes in the city's most affluent neighborhood. Though no group claimed responsibility for the incident, United States Embassy and Salvadoran Government officials said they assumed that the killings were the work of some group affiliated with the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, the guerrilla umbrella organization. Rebel Setbacks Noted The officials asserted that the attack was proof that leftist guerrillas were turning to violence in the cities because of their inability to defeat the Salvadoran Army on rural battlefields.