What was going on when I was born?

Federal budget deficits will be higher than projected through 1988 even if Congress achieves all the spending cuts in the budget plan it approved last week, according to the Congressional Budget Office and Administration officials. The Congressional Budget Office projects the deficit at $175 billion in 1986, $163 billion in 1987 and $143 billion in 1988. Congressional sources said the projections were part of a final draft of a review to be made public next week. At the same time, Administration officials said today that rough estimates for the Administration figures to be made public at the end of the month show a deficit of around $185 billion in 1986, $155 billion in 1987 and $125 billion in 1988.

Violence and confrontation spread deeper into black townships around Durban today, pitting black rioters against white police officers and Indian vigilantes armed with shotguns and pistols. At one point, the arson and looting engulfed the former home of Mohandas K. Gandhi. The house was pillaged and buildings and schools next to it were set on fire by black looters. The authorities said today that 32 people had been killed in the last 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 52 in four days of unrest in townships like this one 12 miles north of Durban, the principal city of Natal Province. Toll Could Rise Township residents said they feared the toll would climb as bodies were recovered from gutted homes and buildings. The police have acknowledged killing 22 of the people slain in this area, but the circumstances of the other deaths remained unclear.

After working for two hours to repair a damaged kidney from an automobile crash victim, doctors here last month implanted the organ into the wife of a senior adviser to the King of Saudi Arabia. When the organ failed after 18 hours inside her body, doctors at Presbyterian-University Hospital here replaced it with the 26-year-old donor's second kidney, again bypassing Americans who had been waiting longer for the life-enhancing operation. The two operations, as well as hundreds of similar ones on other foreigners around the country, have inflamed a simmering national debate among medical experts and government officials on how to distribute the limited supply of kidneys and other organs. In its broadest sense, the debate is about how doctors should choose among thousands of sick and dying people who need transplants. Preference for Citizens Many doctors, citing the limited number of organs available, have begun to argue that American citizenship should be a prerequisite for a transplant.

The Federal Government moved today to ban the use in fresh vegetables and fruits of six sulfite preservatives that the Food and Drug Administration said had been linked to at least 13 deaths since 1983. The ban, which would apply to both food markets and restaurants, was proposed by the F.D.A. with the approval of the Office of Management and Budget, which reviews all regulatory actions for the Reagan Administration. The proposal is expected to take effect after a 30-day period for public comment. The ban would not affect other foods that now contain the sulfite preservatives, including frozen potatoes, seafood, dried fruits, wine and beer.

The Reagan Administration, in a ''serious'' discussion, has advised South African officials that the political climate within their country will have a direct impact on relations with Washington, Administration officials said today. The presentation of the United States position, according to White House officials, stopped short of an ultimatum on the part of the American officials who met with the South Africans in Vienna Thursday and today. Concern Over Unrest They said the Administration had made the South Africans fully aware of its concern over the continued internal strife within South Africa, including the state of emergency proclamation that Pretoria imposed in 36 magisterial districts in the Johannesburg area and eastern Cape Province on July 21. Describing the talks, a senior Administration official said, ''What they talked about is overall reform, basic constitutional reform aimed at fundamental aspects of apartheid.''

A Federal District judge today found Arthur James Walker guilty of spying for the Soviet Union and of conspiring with his brother in what American officials have called the most damaging spy case in decades. Mr. Walker was convicted of stealing classified documents for his brother, John A. Walker Jr., a retired Navy enlisted man accused of drawing two family members and a close friend into an elaborate espionage operation. Arthur Walker, a baldish retired Navy lieutenant commander, stood nervously clenching and unclenching his fists as Judge J. Calvitt Clarke Jr. delivered his verdict of guilty on all seven counts of espionage, conspiracy and unauthorized possession of classified information. Sentencing Set for Oct. 15 After hearing testimony for four days in the nonjury trial, the judge listened to closing arguments today. He then took a 15-minute recess before ruling from the bench. Judge Clarke set sentencing for Oct. 15. Mr. Walker faces up to three life sentences plus 40 years in prison and fines up to $40,000.

A special meeting of the Arab League that was attended by moderate Arab countries today ''noted'' the Jordanian-Palestinian accord outlining a joint effort for peace with Israel, but it did not endorse the accord. Participants said a communique approved today was a compromise between the factions seeking a stronger endorsement of the accord and those who opposed mentioning it at all. Thus it enabled both camps to claim victory, a much-cherished goal at Arab meetings, officials said. In the communique expressing the consensus of the 16 delegations, issued at the end of the three-day meeting, the conferees ''noted with appreciation'' a ''detailed explanation'' of the accord of Feb. 11 presented in a closed session by King Hussein of Jordan and Yasir Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the accord's major signers.

A West Side couple were shot to death yesterday as the man followed a nightly routine of meeting his wife to see her safely home from work. The couple, who were planning to move to Florida in three weeks, were killed outside their apartment on West 44th Street shortly after midnight by a gunman who then ''casually walked away,'' a police spokesman said. The couple, William Pardenilla, 67 years old, and his wife, Marta, 59, may have tried to resist their attacker. Neighbors told the police that they had heard shouts and scuffling. Later the police found Mr. Pardenilla's partly opened pocketknife lying on the ground nearby. A neighbor said Mr. Pardenilla, a retired cook, had carried the knife since he was mugged three or four years ago on Fifth Avenue.

Rival gunmen clashed on the line dividing this capital and in a Moslem area today, killing at least six people. Christian and Moslem militiamen fired shells and rockets across the Green Line, between the mostly Moslem western section and mainly Christian east, for more than four hours.

Uganda's new military Government banned political gatherings today but pledged to free 1,400 prisoners jailed by the previous Government. Meanwhile, the Uganda radio appealed for soldiers loyal to Milton Obote, the former President, to lay down their arms, and the Government announced ''no fundamental change'' in its foreign policy of nonalignment.

The United States proposed to Vietnam today that an American delegation go to Hanoi to discuss Vietnam's recent offer to resolve the missing-in-action issue, a State Department spokesman said. The department spokesman, Bernard Kalb, said the proposed delegation would include officials from the Defense and State Departments, the National Security Council and the executive director of the National League of Families.

Pope John Paul II, apparently disturbed by his visit to this nation's opulent presidential palace, broke his schedule today to stop at a mud hut and speak with an impoverished woman about her life. The Pope made the stop after visiting the regal glass and tile home of President Gnassingbe Eyadema in Pya, in this country's northern reaches. Joaquin Navarro Valls, the chief Vatican spokesman, said later that the Pope wanted to make clear that ''he was aware of the two realities of Africa,'' that ''wealth and poverty exist side by side.'' President Eyadema, a Protestant, has gone out of his way to identify himself with the Pope, and he has used the country's single political party to put together warm welcomes for him.