What was going on when I was born?

Companies MTV Networks received a $471 million takeover offer from Forstmann Little and a management group. The music channel is two-thirds owned by Warner Amex Cable, the venture of American Express and Warner Communications, and the rest by the public. Sources close to Warner Communications said its board appeared likely to vote to exercise its option to buy American Express's half interest of Warner Amex Cable for $450 million. [Page D1.] Petro-Canada is expected to buy Gulf Canada's refining and marketing assets in western Canada for over $500 million. [D1.]

''If necessary, we can even take stronger steps than we have taken so far.'' - President P. W. Botha of South Africa. [A1:6.]

As 77-year-old Lillian Robbins sat in her wheelchair and talked of being old in New York City, she broke down and started to weep. She talked of ''disgruntled'' bus drivers who, irritated by her need to use wheelchair lifts, had frightened her away from public transportation. She talked of being afraid to ride alone in her building's elevator because of crime. She talked of not having enough money.

An article yesterday about broadcasters' reactions to the Federal Communications Commission's attack on the Fairness Doctrine omitted a phrase - ''of news content'' -in quoting Corydon B. Dunham, executive vice president and general counsel of NBC. He said: ''Government regulation of news content is wrong, whatever it is called. We welcome the F.C.C.'s principled stand that its Fairness Doctrine should be repealed.''

Reagan Administration officials say they are searching for a new approach to the increasing problems of farmers and their bankers while putting aside the White House's earlier plans for fundamental changes in Government agriculture programs. An increase in loan defaults among American farmers and the spread of associated bank failures have added to the White House's worries about the security of the nation's financial structure. In addition, the deepening national recession in agriculture, characterized by falling farm prices, has led to a large rise in Federal payments to farmers, which threatens to undermine efforts by the Administration and Congress to cut budget deficits. Overhaul Plan Abandoned Political restraints have led President Reagan to largely abandon for now his plan to overhaul the nation's farm economy by reducing Government regulation. At the same time, Administration officials say they have begun to consider other measures to help agriculture.

A Detroit dispatch by The Associated Press in Business Day on Wednesday about Toyota Motor Company sales carried figures that the company says were overstated because of a computer programming error. Toyota now says it sold 68,753 cars in July, 32.3 percent more than in July 1984.

Substantial shipments of weapons in recent months have permitted Nicaraguan guerrillas to open a new anti-Government drive inside Nicaragua, according to rebel officials, Western diplomats and Hondurans familiar with the rebels' operations. The new offensive, officials here say, appears to have caught the Nicaraguan Government by surprise. Rebel units said to number up to 10,000 guerrillas seem to have sidestepped Sandinista troops along the Honduran border to launch attacks in the last week in the departments of Esteli and Chontales, where they are reported to have killed as many as 95 Nicaraguan soldiers and militiamen in a series of ambushes. Esteli is near the Honduran border, but Chontales is deep inside Nicaragua.

Neither representatives of the major league baseball teams nor the players claimed victory yesterday as a result of the two-day baseball strike, and there was disagreement over the role played by Commissioner Peter Ueberroth in reaching a settlement. But representatives of the owners and the players said negotiators for both sides moved quickly to end the dispute because they feared another long strike if they did not reach agreement in the first few days of a strike. They said the players and the owners each conceded ground to the other. For example, even though the players agreed to reduce from 33 percent to 18 percent their share of the national television revenue for their benefit plan, the players won a hefty pension: At age 62, a player with 10 years of major league experience will receive a pension of nearly $91,000. Under the previous plan, a 20-year major leaguer, at age 65, would have gotten about $57,000 a year.

Sixteen more people were reported slain here in violence overnight, bringing to 20 the number killed since renewed riots, looting and clashes with the police erupted in black townships around this southeastern city three days ago. The death toll made the outbreak in Durban among the worst in 11 months of unrest in South Africa. The number of wounded was not known, but officials at one hospital here reported that wounded people were ''pouring in.'' In one Durban township, hundreds of people of Indian descent fled their homes as young Zulus stormed shops and homes, putting them to the torch. The flight evoked memories among Indians of 1949, when 142 Asians died in fights with South African Zulus.

A passenger on a crowded East Side subway train yesterday morning suddenly rose to his feet, pulled out a small handgun and fired two bullets into a man with whom he had been arguing over a seat, the police said. Five other passengers were hurt in the stampede that followed. The shooting victim, with wounds in the neck and abdomen, was taken to Lenox Hill Hospital, where he underwent surgery. He was identified as Junior Besson, 20 years old, of the Bronx, and was listed in guarded but stable condition.

International 16 more South Africans were killed, bringing to 20 the number killed since a new wave of rioting, looting and clashes with the police erupted in black townships around Durban. The number of wounded was not known, but officials at one hospital reported that wounded people were ''pouring in.'' [Page A1, Column 6.] U.S. and South African officials met at the United States Embassy in Vienna at South Africa's request to discuss the violence there, the Reagan Administration said. [A6:1-2.]

MTV Networks Inc. said yesterday that Forstmann Little & Company, an investment firm that specializes in leveraged buyouts, and a group of MTV's management had offered $31 a share, or a total of $471 million, for the cable service company. MTV is one-third owned by the public and two-thirds owned by Warner Amex Cable Communications, the joint venture between the American Express Company and Warner Communications Inc. Separately, sources close to the Warner Communications board said that the board, which is meeting today, appears likely to vote to exercise its option to buy out American Express' 50 percent interest in the joint venture for $450 million. The sources asked not to be named.