What was going on when I was born?

In his years of guiding Apple Computer Inc., Steven P. Jobs had become the epitome of the American entrepreneur, a symbol of the wealth and power that can arise almost overnight in California's Silicon Valley. Even President Reagan, in a recent address, urged the nation's youth to ''follow in the footsteps of those two college students who launched one of America's great computer firms from the garage behind their house.'' The tale of Mr. Jobs's visionary leadership at Apple came to a bitter end on Tuesday when he resigned as the company's chairman after disclosure of his plans to start a new company. A Prominent Salesman Mr. Jobs has been the most prominent salesman of the personal computer revolution, preaching that the new technology would change everyone's lives. And just as Mr. Jobs is falling, the revolution he foretold is stalling: Consumers and businesses are slowing their purchases of computers and questioning how much they really need the machines.

A picture caption yesterday in Metropolitan Report misidentified a croquet player. He was Maurice Marsac.

Federal scientists yesterday took the first major step toward the construction of what they say will be the biggest and costliest pure science project in history: an atom smasher so big it would encircle an area the size of New York City. The scientists announced the selection of a key element of the machine, a type of superconducting magnet meant to keep speeding subatomic particles locked in a magnetic prison 60 miles in circumference. The decision marks a firm commitment to a particular design for the huge machine, which would be the world's most powerful device for probing the heart of the atom and solving some of the enigmas that have long baffled physicists. Superconducting Super Collider Until now, the machine, designated the Superconducting Super Collider, has been a vague goal pursued by hundreds of Federal scientists who for the last two years have been investigating its feasiblity and building prototype parts. Although the project still must get Congressional approval, it is moving forward with the strong backing of the Reagan Administration and the country's leading physicists.

International An American in Lebanon was freed on Saturday and is back in the United States with his family, President Reagan announced. Mr. Reagan said the release of the Reverend Benjamin Weir had been kept secret for fear of endangering the chances for release of the six other hostages still being held there. [Page A1, Column 6.] Facts on Benigno S. Aquino's death two years ago remain as elusive as ever, and the way seems clear for the acquittal of some or all of the 26 men charged with involvement in the slaying of the Philippines opposition leader. The testimony of the soldiers who hustled Mr. Aquino to his death has been remarkably uniform. [A1:4-6.]

In recent years, successful start-up companies in hot new industries have been raising bigger and bigger bundles of cash for themselves and their founders by selling shares to the public. It happened in personal computers with Apple Computer, in computer software with Lotus Development and in biotechnology with Genentech. Now a Wunderkind of the video cassette revolution - Vestron Video Inc. - is about to go public in one of the largest initial offerings ever. And in the process it will make a very rich man of its 42-year-old founder and chairman, Austin O. Furst Jr., a former executive at Time Inc. ''This will be one of the greatest killings in the history of initial public offerings,'' said Norman Fosback, editor of New Issues, an investment newsletter based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. ''Not since Allen Paulson took in $65 million of cash from the initial offering of Gulfstream Aerospace in 1983 has one individual raked in so much cash from an initial deal.''

Starting salaries for New York City teachers will rise immediately by nearly $4,000, to $18,500, as part of a new contract announced yesterday by an arbitration panel. The most experienced teachers will also receive large increases. The salary increases, more costly to the city than raises won by other nonuniform municipal unions, were offset in part by reductions in paid sabbaticals and an increase in teaching and administrative duties for some teachers. The teachers' overall salary increase comes to 19 percent over three years.

In his announcement yesterday of a reorganization of top management, John S. Reed, Citicorp's chairman of one year, indicated that he was trying to make the world's largest, and possibly most powerful, banking organization a considerably more harmonious and conciliatory institution. Mr. Reed's new appointments themselves presented few surprises, since most of the shifts had been predicted as early as last week. But the logic behind them, which Mr. Reed laid out at a news conference yesterday, provided the first real glimpse of Mr. Reed's management philosophy, which seems to be in sharp contrast to Walter B. Wriston, Citicorp's iconoclastic chairman for 17 years, whom Mr. Reed succeeded last September. James H. Wooden, bank-stock analyst for Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc., called the changes ''non-revolutionary.'' He added, ''They reflect Reed's fairly conservative character.''

Unilever N.V., the big Dutch-British company, accused Richardson-Vicks Inc., the maker of Vicks cold remedies, in court yesterday of discriminating against shareholders and helping the Richardson family, founders of the company, to further entrench themselves. David Boies of Cravath, Swaine & Moore, attorney for the European consumer-products giant, contended before Judge Richard Owen in Federal District Court in Manhattan that a new class of preferred stock announced Tuesday by Richardson-Vicks would make it difficult, if not impossible, for Unilever to go ahead with its offer to buy the company. Mr. Boies further maintained that protective measures taken Tuesday by Richardson-Vicks provide that if Unilever bought any shares, it would lose special, multiple-voting rights conferred on the new issue of preferred. Any purchase of shares by Unilever, he contended, would shrink the total number of votes and thus give the Richardson family a greater proportion of the overall vote. This, Mr. Boies argued, would be discriminatory.

The Federal Communications Commission, trying to stimulate competition in the telephone equipment industry, dropped its requirement that the American Telephone and Telegraph Company maintain a corporate wall of separation between its marketing of long-distance services and telephone and computer equipment. A.T.&T., in seeking the change, told the F.C.C. that the separation was costing it more than $1 billion a year. Mark S. Fowler, the commission chairman, said he did not view today's action as ''wholesale deregulation.'' He added: ''It's about efficiency, this item. It enables A.T.&T. to eliminate unnecessary costs and that's good for consumers and it's good for America's ability to compete abroad.''

''I am very unhappy with the level of corruption that existed and may continue to exist, and I am resolved not to allow it to exist any more.'' -Mayor W. Wilson Goode of Philadelphia, referring to the police department. [A1:1.]

New York officials, reluctantly drafting plans to transfer $1.7 billion in Federal funds earmarked for Westway to a more modest road project and mass-transit improvements, are confronting serious political and financial complications. Although their hands are tied by adverse court rulings and what appeared to be the unwillingness of Congress to extend a Sept. 30 trade-in deadline, they still hope to exert whatever leverage they have to collect, as quickly as possible, the full $1.7 billion under the trade-in program. The officials expressed confidence that New York would not have to repay $96.3 million that it had already received from Washington for the Westway site. Also, they said they expected that New York City would be able to fend off competing claims for the trade-in funds from neighboring counties. But the decision by Governor Cuomo and Mayor Koch to apply for a trade-in early next week, unless Congress agrees to extend the trade-in deadline to let New York continue its court battle on behalf of Westway, has raised a number of other problems.

President Reagan announced today that the Rev. Benjamin Weir, who had been held hostage in Lebanon for 16 months, had been released and was back in the United States with his family. The President said the release of Mr. Weir, which took place on Saturday, had been kept secret until now for fear of endangering chances that six other Americans being held hostage might be released. They include a diplomat, three members of the staff of the American University in Beirut, a Roman Catholic priest, and an Associated Press correspondent, all abducted or reported missing between March 1984 and June 1985. Reagan Talks With Weir Mr. Reagan, in New Hampshire campaigning for changes in the tax system, told an outdoor crowd in Concord that he had talked with Mr. Weir from ''Air Force One this morning, and I'm happy for him and his family.'' ''But I will not be satisfied and will not cease our efforts until all the hostages, the other six, are released,'' he added.