What was going on when I was born?

A caption in some copies Saturday with the Sports People column did not apply to the picture it accompanied. The picture showed the tennis player Andrea Jaeger, not the runner Mary Decker Slaney.

Pressures are building in France to sell back to private investors the great swath of industry and banking that President Francois Mitterrand and his ruling Socialists nationalized after they took power four years ago. The move comes just as many of these companies are finally turning a profit. The Socialists' nationalization spree has given France the largest state sector among industrialized countries outside the Communist world, with Government-owned companies accounting for about 30 percent of industrial output. The 12 big industrial groups that the Socialists swept into the public net at a cost of 50 billion francs in compensation (or the equivalent of about $5.9 billion at the current exchange rate of about 8.4 francs per dollar), include Saint-Gobain, the insulation maker; Pechiney Ugine Kuhlmann, the metals giant; Rhone-Poulenc in chemicals: Compagnie Generale d'Electricite; Thomson-CSF and ITT's French subsidiaries in the electrical sector; two steel companies, Usinor and Sacilor; two leading armaments companies, Dassault and Matra; Roussel Uclaf, a pharmaceuticals concern, and Cii Honeywell Bull, a computer company. The Socialists also added 39 privately owned banks to the list of state-owned companies, which already included France's three largest banks; most insurance companies; the Renault automobile company; the aviation, nuclear, shipbuilding and coal mining industries; Air France and the internal airlines; the railways, telephone, post office and gas and electricity supply companies.

International South Africa's black leaders were urged by Robert C. McFarlane, President Reagan's national security adviser, to challenge the Government to produce specific changes to match its vague promises before those black leaders resorted to further violence. He made his comments as questions arose in the United States and South Africa as to why expectations were so high that President P. W. Botha's speech on Thursday would include major concessions to the country's black majority. [Page A1, Column 6.] Unrest continued in black townships around South Africa. Arson, looting and stone-throwing was reported in six townships in the Orange Free State, Port Elizabeth, Durban, Johannesburg and Soweto. [A5:1.]

Josh T. Hulce, president of the Manville Corporation, likens the impact of the past three years on his company to being hardened by fire. On Aug. 26, 1982, Manville took the unusual step of filing for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the Federal Bankruptcy Code to contend with claims from victims of asbestos-related disease. The move sparked a public outcry over what was then seen as a tactic by the company to avoid its product-liability responsibilities and even prompted Congress to amend the bankruptcy laws last year to prevent other companies from following Manville's example. Besides the grueling negotiations with asbestos claimants and other creditors, the Denver-based company has also had to fight like it never had before to reclaim market share from competitors who seized upon Manville's travails as a golden opportunity to steal its business. Manville, which sold its asbestos operations several years ago, is now mainly involved in fiberglass and forest products.

The Senator from New York put on his baby-talk voice. ''Penny, girl,'' Alfonse M. D'Amato cooed into the phone in his Washington office, ''do me a little favor, will ya?'' Penny, the secretary to Edward Rollins, a White House aide, had already explained that her boss could not talk because he was in a meeting and had to rush to a reception. But the Republican Senator, who wanted to ask Mr. Rollins about getting the President to campaign for him in New York, never takes no for an answer if he can cajole, shout, ply or pressure his way into a yes or a maybe. ''Penny, sweetness,'' he said, ''you walk into that meeting and give him a little piece of paper that says: 'Senator D'Amato' -no, make that Alfonse - 'Alfonse says he hasn't bothered you in a long, long time. So can you call him - please, please? Don't forget your friend Alfonse.' Tell him I'll only bother him for two minutes. No, one minute. Can't you do that for Alfonse? What time is the reception?''

The Reagan Administration has failed to reduce steel imports, industry executives said last week, despite a pledge made 11 months ago to do so. But many said that they expected improved figures for the second half of this year. Last September President Reagan said he would seek to negotiate with foreign steel producers a five-year agreement to voluntarily limit their exports of finished steel products to the United States to an annual 18.5 percent of the domestic market. Semi-finished steel slabs from abroad were allotted another 1.7 percent of the domestic market.

Depositors of Community Savings and Loan Inc. of Bethesda, Md., waited in line to make withdrawals over the weekend after the disclosure that a real estate investment subsidiary affiliated with the thrift unit had missed some debt payments. But Community Savings said the financial problems at the subsidiary, the Equity Programs Investment Corporation, would have ''no effect on Community Savings and Loan.'' Community Savings has assets of about $400 million. Community Savings said Friday that Equity Programs had failed to make some payments to holders of about $1 billion in mortgage-backed securities it issued to finance real estate deals, and that it could be in technical default by the end of this month.

The leak of toxic gas from a Union Carbide plant in West Virginia last week has focused new attention on safety design problems at thousands of chemical plant processing units where hazardous materials are handled, industry consultants say. The consultants said that as many as 50,000 processing units at chemical plants around the country were not designed to prevent the leaking of hazardous substances in the event that chemical processes get out of control. No Details from Union Carbide The risk that the design defects could lead to a health emergency is considered small because many human and equipment failures would have to occur in sequence for hazardous material to be released and weather conditions would have to carry it to populated areas. Moreover, only about 1 percent of the nation's 5 million chemical processing units handle hazardous materials that could result in runaway reactions. Nevertheless, authorities in the industry are concerned about the problem.

Robert C. McFarlane, the President's national security adviser, said today that both blacks and whites in South Africa are ''looking into an abyss of massive violence,'' and he urged black leaders to challenge the Pretoria Government to produce specific changes to match what he termed vague promises. Mr. McFarlane said he was disappointed by the speech given on Thursday by the South African President, P. W. Botha. Despite a buildup of expectations both in the United States and South Africa, Mr. Botha pointedly did not detail any specific actions for change in South Africa. Growing Questions on Speech Mr. McFarlane's comments today came against a background of growing questions in the United States and South Africa as to why expectations were so high that President Botha's speech would contain major concessions to the country's black majority, and whether South African officials suggested that the speech would point in that direction. The week before Mr. Botha's address in Durban, Mr. McFarlane and a high-level American delegation met in Vienna with South African officials to discuss Pretoria's intentions.

President Francois Mitterrand ordered France's armed forces tonight to prevent ''by force if necessary'' any attempt to enter French territorial waters where nuclear tests are scheduled to be held. His directive was issued soon after a vessel owned by the environmental group Greenpeace left the Netherlands today to lead a protest in France's test zone in the South Pacific next month. The vessel is a replacement for one sunk last month in Auckland, New Zealand, in an explosion caused by mines fastened to its hull. French counterintelligence agents are said to have been involved in the incident, in which a photographer on the ship was killed A Political Scandal The ship, the Rainbow Warrior, was to have led a flotilla of vessels protesting French nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific. Its sinking in New Zealand on July 10 and the subsequent arrest there of a French couple purportedly linked to the incident have caused a political scandal in France.

''Both sides can get you. You never know which side is against you.''

The man who sells Picassos and Chagalls in a glittery part of this city said: Well, no, things are not going too badly in South Africa these days. He said his clients, from the white suburb of Sandton, were mainly affluent people who were uncertain of their future in the vortex of unrest swirling in their nation, and so had little interest in fixed assets. The value of their money, he said, seemed to wither by the day. And so, said the art dealer, Dennis Hotz, interest was growing in fine art as an investment. In his office, set back from his main gallery, a Chagall priced at $125,000 adorned a wall.