What was going on when I was born?

The board of directors of Trans World Airlines, after a prolonged takeover struggle, will hold what is expected to be a decisive meeting today on the future of the airline, sources involved in the negotiations said yesterday. The board must make a decision on two offers for the carrier: a $26-a-share bid by the Texas Air Corporation or an offer of $24 a share by Carl C. Icahn, who has also won major concessions from two of the carrier's unions. T.W.A. stock was the fifth most-active stock in trading on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday, closing at $22.125, down 37.5 cents.

The Union Carbide Corporation said today that operating and design problems in a new chemical process had caused a toxic gas leak that injured at least 135 people here Sunday. The gas, aldicarb oxime, began leaking at 9:24 A.M., 20 minutes before the local authorities were notified and 36 minutes before a public warning siren was sounded, company spokesmen said today. They said a computer had predicted the cloud would remain within the plant's boundaries, thus contributing to the delay. Most of those affected were treated for eye, throat or lung irritation and were released; of the 28 people admitted to hospitals, 15 were released today. The company said the rest were in satisfactory condition.

THE world of animal vision, long a gray area for scientists, is beginning to come alive with color. While research in the field is in its infancy, recent findings indicate that some species see brightly hued landscapes in colors invisible to human eyes, whereas others see only drab colors or none at all. What does the world look like to a bird, a bee, a goldfish or a cat? What color does a bull see when confronted with a red flag? Does the ''colorblindness'' of some monkeys explain the origin of such defects in human beings? For centuries there was no way to answer many of these questions because it was so hard to determine whether an animal could see a particular color. But new testing methods are making it possible to find the answers.

KATHLEEN KASAY grew up wanting to become a schoolteacher, but the job outlook in education was so dismal when she was graduated from St. Joseph's Hill Academy on Staten Island in 1976 that she abandoned her goal even before she entered college. Instead, she majored in biology at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania and went into industrial research. Next month, however, Mrs. Kasay, now 27 years old, will switch careers and become a schoolteacher in Montclair, N.J.. She is in the first group of two to three dozen teachers being hired by school districts throughout New Jersey under a new law that will allow them to gain regular certification without taking courses in education.

''We're going to go over this plant with a fine-tooth comb, to find if other systems have problems.'' - Carl G. Beard, director of the West Virginia Air Pollution Control Commission. [B8:4.]

The dollar sank yesterday, in its second sharp drop in two trading days because of fears that economic growth in the United States will be weaker than expected. In foreign exchange trading rooms around the world, where many chief dealers are on vacation and trading is light and cautious, the mood was for further declines in the dollar. Already it has lost about one-fifth of its value against the West German mark and more than one-third of its value against the British pound since its peak at the end of February. ''I think the dollar will be crucified on two crosses until something changes,'' said David Buchen, manager of New York trading for BankAmerica International. The two burdens on the dollar, he said, were a relatively easy monetary policy that reduces interest rates, and hence returns on American investments, and the lack of a comprehensive plan to reduce the Federal budget deficit to restore confidence in the economy.

A Japan Air Lines jumbo jet carrying 524 people on a domestic flight crashed into a wooded mountain range in central Japan on Monday evening after the pilot reported that a cabin door had broken and that he had lost control. At least seven people, including a woman and her 8-year-old daughter, were found alive by rescue crews on a mountainside late this morning. Some of the survivors were airlifted off the mountain in military helicopters. Their condition was not immediately known. The crash was by far the worst air disaster ever involving a single plane.

An article yesterday about a funeral of a civil rights leader in a South African homeland misidentified an American judge who was among the mourners. He was Judge Nathaniel R. Jones from the United States Federal Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati.

A picture caption in Business Day yesterday with an article about the biotechnology industry misidentified a worker at the Cetus Corporation. The worker, shown in a laboratory at the right, was a technician, not the chairman, Dr. Ronald Cape.

A spurt in the cost of food - the largest in a year - sent prices at the producer level up three-tenths of 1 percent in July, the Government reported today. The July increase in the Producer Price Index for finished goods was the biggest since April, when it rose four-tenths of 1 percent. But economists were not concerned that the increase signaled an immediate re-igniting of inflation, noting that the cost of energy fell in July and that agricultural prices are often volatile during the summer months. Producer prices are often an early indication of price movements on the consumer level.

Most Japanese, and a majority of Americans, believe that the United States is using Japanese trade practices as a scapegoat when its real economic problems are domestic, a New York Times/CBS News/Tokyo Broadcasting System Poll shows. Seeing the Japanese as superior in consumer product quality, especially cars, and blaming American business for a poor effort in selling to Japan, the publics of both countries also felt strongly that Japanese blue-collar employees worked harder than Americans. American blue-collar workers and union members agreed solidly. But even though the Americans acknowledged domestic causes for their trade problems, 48 percent of them said trade with Japan was bad for the United States economy and 57 percent said Japan was unfairly restricting imports. Consequences Cut Backing Some kind of trade action against Japan was supported by 63 percent of the American public although support for sanctions dropped sharply when the risks of retaliation, higher prices or diminished consumer choice were raised.

Rebels fighting the Sandinista Government of Nicaragua have received as much as $25 million in donations from private individuals in the United States and foreign sources, according to a retired general and Administration officials who work with the insurgents. They said the anti-Sandinista movement was growing rapidly, adding advanced weapons and struggling for greater unity. The guerrillas, widely known by the name contras, now pose a real threat to the Nicaraguan Government, United States officials and rebel leaders assert. ''The end is not in sight, but it is much, much closer,'' said a high-ranking Administration official who works closely with the Nicaraguan exile groups. ''This is not going to take 10 years.'' $27 Million Voted by Congress The money from private sources is in addition to $27 million in nonmilitary aid to the rebels recently voted by Congress.