What was going on when I was born?

Because of an editing error, an article in Business Day on Monday about automobile mileage regulations incorrectly described the $8 billion earned by General Motors and the $3 billion earned by Ford on larger car models. The figures reflect what are known as variable profits, before the deduction of fixed overhead and taxes.

The leaders of the House and Senate Budget Committees said early today that they were closer to an agreement on a Federal budget for the fiscal year 1986, which begins Oct. 1. But several unspecified issues remained unsettled in the dispute, which has lasted for weeks, and a compromise was not assured. The budget conferees are to meet again in an open session later this morning. Senior members of the conferees' staffs indicated late Wednesday that the four main unresolved issues included spending for the military, transportation, Medicare and Medicaid.

The International Business Machines Corporation said yesterday that it had reached an agreement in principle with the Japanese Government allowing I.B.M. access to state-owned patents covering computer-related inventions. The deal appeared to pave the way for I.B.M. to market advanced computers developed in Japan by joint Government-industry projects, perhaps including some arising out of the ''Fifth Generation'' advanced computer design project. Announcement of the agreement came only a day after Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone appealed to the United States Congress not to pass protectionist legislation. He also offered details of a program intended to open Japan's markets, including relaxation of import procedures and a campaign to increase the sale of foreign goods in Japan.

It was an only-in-New York scene, orchestrated and directed by the city's only-in-New York Mayor. There stood Ed Koch on Columbus Avenue near 77th Street last week, surrounded by so many reporters, photographers and television crews that an unwitting passer-by thought someone was shooting a movie. It wasn't a movie. It was Mr. Koch doing what he does like no one else - grabbing, and getting, attention.

Secretary of State George P. Shultz and the new Soviet Foreign Minister, Eduard A. Shevardnadze, met today in what the American called ''a good first step'' in preparing a summit meeting in November. ''The talks were serious and good,'' Mr. Shevardnadze told reporters after the three-hour meeting. ''The most important thing is the summit. The first step has been taken.''

Every honeybee near here, wild or cultivated, is being hunted down, and, if found, killed by a team of scientists on the trail of agressive Africanized bees and the mites they brought with them. The so-called killer bees arrived here unnoticed in a shipment of pipe aboard a freighter from Brazil that docked in this Lake Ontario port last year. The Federal Department of Agriculture says it is trying to determine whether any of the bees flew off the ship and landed in colonies nearby. The Africanized bees, known for their tendency to attack intruders in great numbers, inhabit sections of South and Central America and are expected to spread north and reach the lower United States in the next few years.

The Colgate-Palmolive Company, in a major retrenchment that would largely move it out of the food, athletic equipment and textile businesses, said yesterday that it was placing several of its divisions up for sale. At the same time, the consumer products concern said it would begin an offering to purchase 12 million, or about 18 percent, of its shares. Colgate said it wanted to sell its Bike Athletic and Etonic subsidiaries, which produce athletic shoes, clothing and equipment; Riviana Foods, the maker of Carolina rice, and the textile fabrics division of the Kendall Company. Colgate said the sale of the operations could generate about $260 million.

A new test has apparently succeeded in screening AIDS-tainted blood from the nation's supply of blood for transfusions, according to studies reported today at a meeting at the National Institutes of Health. The test, which was licensed last spring, ''seems to be extremely valuable in screening out'' blood contaminated with the virus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome, said Dr. Harry M. Meyer, an official of the Food and Drug Administration. The test ''picks up essentially every potentially infectious unit'' of contaminated blood, he said. An Incurable Illness AIDS has killed about 6,000 Americans, and the number of confirmed cases has more than tripled each year since the disease was discovered in 1981. No cure or vaccine has been found.

A dispatch yesterday from Spring Hill, Tenn., about the impact of that community's selection as an auto-manufacturing site, incorrectly cited the increased asking price of one property quoted by a real estate agent. It rose to $600,000 from $250,000.

The partners of L. F. Rothschild, Unterberg, Towbin, the investment bank, are discussing a major shift in ownership that could involve Marshall S. Cogan, the investment entrepreneur, taking a significant minority position, sources close to the negotiations said yesterday. The largest shareholder of the partnership, known for its expertise in research and corporate finance for fast-growing high-technology companies, is J. Rothschild Holdings P.L.C., the London investment company run by Jacob Rothschild. Mr. Rothschild, regarded in investment circles as an aggressive financier, was said to be unavailable in London because of an illness. But a senior official of J. Rothschild Holdings, which owns 50 percent of L. F. Rothschild, said: ''I cannot comment fully. But negotiations have been taking place in New York between the partners of L.F.R.''

PEOPLE who are passionately fond of their homes tend to recall the first sight of them with the clarity of parents recalling the first sight of a newborn. Witness the description by Duane Michals, a photographer, of the day 14 years ago that he found the house in which he spends every possible weekend. ''I'd looked for two years upstate, and whenever a real estate agent said, 'Oh, you're going to love it; it's just been remodeled,' my heart sank. Remodeling always meant fluorescent lights, fake pine paneling - it was the kiss of death. But on a bright, crisp Sunday morning in January when the snow was 20 inches deep, I saw this, and suddenly there was a sense of finding the right place.'' ''This'' is a farmhouse built around 1825 on 120 acres of meadow, pond and orchard in Cambridge, N.Y. -''45 minutes from Saratoga, 25 minutes from downtown Bennington and 45 minutes from the Williamstown Playhouse.'' All it needed was simplifying, said Mr. Michals's Manhattan architect, Fred Gorree. ''But what Fred calls simplifying, I call gutting,'' Mr. Michals said.

House and Senate negotiators reached agreement tonight on a bill that would impose economic sanctions on South Africa. The conference committee's action appeared likely to increase pressure on the Reagan Administration to drop its opposition to sanctions. Administration officials have said President Reagan remains committed to a policy of ''constructive engagement'' - or quiet diplomatic pressure on South Africa - despite mounting Congressional impatience with Pretoria's policy of racial separation. Supporters of the sanctions have been pushing to complete action on the bill before Congress adjourns Friday for its August recess.