What was going on when I was born?

Tenants in thousands of rent-stabilized apartments in New York City will pay rent increases of up to 6.5 percent under measures adopted yesterday by the Rent Guidelines Board. In a meeting at 1 Police Plaza interrupted by jeers and catcalls from both tenants and landlords, the board approved increases of 4 percent for a one-year lease and 6.5 percent for a two-year lease. The vote was 5 to 4. ''The board showed a willingness here today to push low and moderately priced homes onto a new level that their tenants won't be able to afford,'' said William Bowen, the chairman of the New York State Tenant and Neighborhood Coalition, a tenants' group.

WEDNESDAYS at 5 A.M. Jan Czech, a fruit farmer from Salt Point in upstate New York, loads her van with 500 quarts of strawberries and heads for the Union Square Greenmarket. On Saturdays, when the market is busiest, Mrs. Czech also brings along apples. But during June - strawberry season for local growers - she concentrates on her strawberries, one-quart baskets of Midways, Fletchers, Honey Eyes and Redchiefs. They sell for $2 a basket. Out in Melville, L.I., Ferdie Schmitt is also focusing on strawberries - and on the weather. If the temperature does not rise sharply and rain is minimal, he will be picking into the city so that by 11 A.M. the shelves of Fairway Fruits & Vegetables (Broadway near 74th Street) will be fully stocked not only with the upstate varieties but also with Allstar, Earlyglow, Jerseybelle and Raritan, names that sound more appropriate for horses in a race at Belmont than for ingredients in a cobbler. When the season ends on Long Island and upstate, after the Fourth of July, New York markets will again rely on strawberries grown in and around Watsonville, in northern California, which are at their peak throughout the summer.

IF a recent culinary foray to North Carolina is any indication, we are becoming one of the least parochial nations on earth where food is concerned. Not long ago, restaurant-going in any but the largest cities of the South was virtually unknown. The best food was thought to be in homes or in boarding houses, and most of that, while frequently wonderful, was standard: fried chicken and country ham, long-cooked greens, black-eyed peas, okra, grits, corn bread and spoon bread. For dessert, pecan pie, sweet potato pie, doughy fruit cobbler or angel food cake. Spices consisted mostly of black pepper in generous amounts, dried sage and herbs like fresh parsley and garlic. Those dishes still exist in the South, of course, and what's more they have now taken hold in other sections of the country. In New York City, for example, restaurants like Carolina, Gulf Coast, Cottonwood Cafe, Tennessee Mountain, Texarkana and Sylvia's serve quintessential Southern fare. At the same time, topnotch dining establishments are making their presence felt in the South. At the places I visited, in the Winston-Salem and Chapel Hill regions, food is expertly prepared, menus are alive with imagination and there is artistry in the presentation. North Carolina still boasts some of the finest barbecue and down-home cooking to be found anywhere, but the newest establishments are marvels of sophistication.

An investigation into allegations of widespread corruption and organized-crime infiltration in New York City's multibillion-dollar construction business was ordered today by Governor Cuomo. The Governor disclosed his plan in a letter to Mayor Koch, who had formally requested the appointment of a special prosecutor in April. Mr. Cuomo said the Statewide Organized Crime Task Force would begin ''an intensive and comprehensive investigation,'' assisted by the state police, the State Commission of Investigation and state and Federal law-enforcement agencies.

The American Express Company announced yesterday that Sanford I. Weill had resigned as president and that it had named Louis V. Gerstner Jr., head of travel services, to succeed him. Mr. Weill's resignation came after months of rumors that the strong-willed Wall Street executive was restless in the huge company and after he made at least two unreported attempts to buy the troubled Fireman's Fund Insurance Company, which he headed, from American Express. Mr. Gerstner, 43 years old, will assume the No. 2 post Aug. 1, when Mr. Weill's resignation becomes effective. Mr. Weill will continue as a consultant to American Express until his employment contract expires in June of 1986. The new president, described by associates as a consummate operations man, is credited with revitalizing the company's travel division, now American Express's biggest profit center. [Page D5.] The company also announced that it planned a partial divestiture of Fireman's Fund. [Page D5.] Mr. Weill, who is 52, made his mark by forging a string of brokerage houses into what today is the giant Shearson Lehman Brothers investment banking arm of American Express.

Orders for durable goods rose 4.1 percent in May, the Commerce Department reported today. Analysts saw the gain as further evidence that the economy was rebounding from its winter doldrums. Orders for manufactured durable goods totaled $103.8 billion last month, with the gain propelled primarily by a huge 50.2 percent increase in military orders.

The American Hospital Supply Corporation yesterday rejected a $3.7 billion buyout offer from Baxter Travenol Laboratories Inc., and said it would proceed with a lower-priced merger with the Hospital Corporation of America that it believes holds better promise for the future. But Wall Street analysts quickly questioned whether American Hospital Supply would be able to garner enough votes to enact the Hospital Corporation transaction. Two-thirds of the company's 74 million shares must be voted in favor of any deal. ''Baxter has really put American Hospital Supply in a difficult position,'' said Joseph France, an analyst with Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Company, predicting, ''I think they scotched the Hospital Corporation merger completely.''

The Shiite militia leader Nabih Berri appeared to be under mounting diplomatic pressure tonight to take major steps to end the 12-day hostage crisis. Mr. Berri's predicament was twofold. In Washington, the White House issued a statement warning of punitive actions unless the hostages were released soon. Earlier, two European Ambassadors told him he could face international ostracism if the crisis was not resolved. Meets With Advisers At the same time, Mr. Berri was facing the problem of dealing with the more militant Shiites involved in the hijacking - members of the fundamentalist Party of God - who are demanding that Israel first free 735 Lebanese and Palestinians in its custody. Israel has said it will not release the detainees unless the United States publicly asks, and Washington has made it clear that it will not do this. [In an interview with CBS News, Mr. Berri said he would propose a plan Wednesday that he believed could break the impasse over the hostages. He also said, referring to President Reagan: ''I am eager to get more details. I hope he isn't being too belligerent.''] Mr. Berri huddled with his advisers tonight after unofficial reports of the American threats to close down Beirut airport or impose an economic blockade on Lebanon reached Beirut.

A London dispatch in some editions Monday, on the crash of the Air-India jumbo jet, incorrectly described the aviation background of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi of India. He is a former pilot for Indian Airlines.

Intensifying its push into telecommunications, the International Business Machines Corporation said yesterday that it was acquiring a major stake in the MCI Communications Corporation, the nation's second-largest long-distance telephone company. The move is I.B.M.'s strongest direct challenge to the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. Financial analysts said it would greatly accelerate the computer giant's efforts to establish a communications network to link computers around the world. The acquisition instantly makes I.B.M. one of the biggest players in the turbulent long-distance market when A.T.&T. is struggling - so far with little success - to enter I.B.M.'s territory and market a range of small and medium-size computers. In a complex deal in which MCI is acquiring an I.B.M. unit, Satellite Business Systems, I.B.M. will emerge with an 18 percent stake in MCI, with the option to expand its holding to 30 percent later.

When a construction crane fell on Brigitte Gerney last month as she walked along Third Avenue, pinning her for six hours, the city leaped into action. Hundreds of police officers rerouted traffic throughout the Upper East Side. Two cranes were brought from other boroughs to lift the one that had fallen. Doctors from Bellevue Hospital set up a mobile hospital at the construction site. Emergency Service rescue workers risked their own lives to save hers. Once she was freed, the police halted traffic for 30 blocks along Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive to speed her trip to the emergency room. No city official questioned how much the rescue effort cost the city, or whether saving Mrs. Gerney's life was worth the price. To do so would have been unthinkable. ''There's no point where you say that's too expensive,'' said Lieut. Thomas Fahey, speaking for the New York City Police Department.

In inviting I.B.M. to buy into its business, the MCI Communications Corporation has confirmed what many business analysts have long believed: Competing in the deregulated world of telecommunications will require vast amounts of technology, the nation's largest corporations as customers, and a big reservoir of cash. William G. McGowan, MCI's chairman and chief executive, was thus elated over the alliance with the International Business Machines Corporation. ''It gives us money from a stockholder interested in our success,'' he said in a telephone interview yesterday. ''It gives as an organization interested in data communications. And it gives us tremendous credibility.''