What was going on when I was born?

An answer in the Saturday News Quiz incorrectly described the error that resulted in the failure of a space laser test. Ground controllers sent instructions to the shuttle Discovery in feet instead of nautical miles. A dispatch from Cape Canaveral in some copies last Thursday also misstated the error.

Influential members of Congress have begun to challenge the Reagan Administration's estimates of the effects of its tax revision plan and are calling some of the arguments used to defend the proposals inconsistent. Tax legislation is unlikely to stand or fall solely on the questions of statistical accuracy or logical consistency. Representative Charles B. Rangel of New York, a senior Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, observed that by the time his committee gets around to voting on taxes after Labor Day, all the statistics and all the arguments will have been weighed. Political and economic ramifications, he said, will then be the decisive issues.

MONDAY, JUNE 24, 1985 International An Air India 747 jet plunged into the Atlantic Ocean off Ireland's southern coast, apparently killing all 329 people aboard. An Indian official said there was ''a distinct possibility'' the plane had been destroyed by a bomb. Ships in the area and helicopters sent from Britain and Ireland recovered 103 bodies. Most of the passengers on the flight from Toronto to Bombay were Indian nationals or Canadians of Indian origin, and they included 86 children. An air traffic supervisor said the plane ''fell like a rock'' from an altitude of 31,000 feet. [Page A1, Column 6.] Security for the Air-India plane had been tightened by Canada at the airline's request after it had received threats. Canada's Transport Minister said that extra policemen had been assigned to terminals in Toronto and Montreal and that ''on this particular flight, we were advised that all baggage was either checked by X-ray or checked by hand.'' [A1:5.]

Administration officials said today that in their private view the Israeli decision to release 31 Lebanese detainees might be helpful toward eventual freeing of the 40 American hostages. But President Reagan and Secretary of State George P. Shultz both publicly adhered to the official position that no connection should be drawn between the American hostages and the 766 Lebanese and Palestinians held by Israel. The difference between the privately held views of officials and the publicly stated positions, which has been evident throughout the past week, was evident today. While some American officials were saying that the Israeli move could be helpful in the long run toward bringing about a resolution of the crisis, Mr. Reagan and Mr. Shultz went out of their way not to praise the Israeli Cabinet's decision. ''I'm not going to comment one way or the other on that because we have avoided any idea of linkage there, and there is none,'' Mr. Reagan said at the White House after returning from a weekend at Camp David.

Amid preparations for a return to earth Monday, the astronauts of Discovery held a televised news conference today in which they talked of wine, dreams and alien spacecraft, and took time to reflect on the Middle East hostages. On the ground, space agency officials hailed the mission as a complete success. In the weeklong flight, the crew launched four satellites and carried out a test to help develop weapons for President Reagan's proposed shield against missiles. The 100-ton winged spaceship is scheduled to land at 6:12 A.M. (9:12 A.M. Eastern time) at Edwards Air Force Base in California after a trip of more than 2.8 million miles.

Baxter Travenol Laboratories will drop its $3.7 billion offer for the American Hospital Supply Corporation if that company's board of directors opposes the plan, a source close to the deal said yesterday. Baxter, however, remains interested in pursuing the merger. According to the source, Baxter also said it would be willing to divest itself of any of its businesses necessary to win Government antitrust approval. American Hospital Supply, with headquarters in Evanston, Ill., is the nation's largest distributor of hospital products. Its intravenous solution business, the source said, is regarded by Baxter as most likely to cause concern in Washington.

The Mets were grudging in their assessment of the Montreal Expos yesterday, but the team that was a popular choice to finish last has established itself as a threat to win the division title the Mets covet. The Expos, capitalizing on sloppy play by the home team for the second consecutive game, gained a 5-1 decision, giving them five victories in six games against the Mets in a 10-day stretch. The outcome left the second-place Expos half a game behind division-leading St. Louis, with the Mets in third place, two games back. The Chicago Cubs, who, with the Mets, were supposed to run away from the rest of the National League East, skidded 4 1/2 games back with their 12th consecutive loss, the longest losing streak in the majors this season.

MONDAY, JUNE 24, 1985 Companies Arco announced the retirement of its chief executive, William F. Kieschnick, who had recently completed a major restructuring plan for the oil company. Lodwrick M. Cook, chief operating officer of the products division, was named to succeed Mr. Kieschnick. Analysts expressed surprise at the changes. [Page D1.]

There had been many special moments for Jackie West during her high school senior week at the Rosemont Hotel here. Often the boys across the hall had thrown her in the shower fully dressed. She and her friend Michelle Bushey drank a lot of spiked ''jungle juice,'' and whenever they heard a song they liked - say something by Madonna - they just started dancing, right on the spot. They watched five sunrises, slept a total of 10 hours and ate three meals the entire week. Each night Jackie called her mother to let her know she was fine.

The full-page advertisement that Trans World Airlines ran as an ''open letter to Carl Icahn'' sounded like fighting words. Mr. Icahn had accumulated 25 percent of the airline's stock. ''If you thought we'd just stand by and do nothing while you try to take over our company,'' T.W.A. warned, ''think again!'' As things turned out, T.W.A. quickly concluded it had very little chance of retaining control of its destiny. Unlike other giants, such as the Phillips Petroleum Company and the Unocal Corporation, which had fought stubbornly and successfully to preserve their independence, T.W.A. could do little more than hold Mr. Icahn, the so-called corporate raider, at bay while it cast about for another embrace. On May 28, just eight days after its tough-talking advertisement, the airline announced that it was up for sale. And barely two weeks later, T.W.A. agreed to be acquired by the Texas Air Corporation for about $930 million. The deal will leave Mr. Icahn with more than $50 million in profit on his shares.

A 4-year-old pygmy chimpanzee at a research center near Atlanta has demonstrated what scientists say are the most humanlike linguistic skills ever documented in another animal. The researchers say that the pygmy chimpanzee, Kanzi, has learned to communicate, using geometric symbols representing words, without the arduous training required by the famous ''talking apes'' of earlier studies, and that he is the first ape to show, in rigorous scientific tests, an extensive understanding of spoken English words. Chimpanzees and other apes are not physically capable of speech. Some have been trained to use sign language or other symbols. The scientists believe that Kanzi's linguistic achievements reflect a higher intellectual capacity in pygmy chimpanzees than in gorillas, orangutans and common chimpanzees, the three other species of great apes. They expect that this discovery and ensuing work with the species will aid in exploring how children learn to talk and how human language first evolved.

''Looking at it from here, with trouble all over the world, not just the Middle East, it looks very strange as you see the boundaries and the border lines disappearing.