What was going on when I was born?

A Cairo dispatch yesterday about Egypt's reaction to the American interception of an Egyptian airliner incorrectly characterized what is known of Israel's role in the 1982 mass slayings of civilians at two Palestinian refugee quarters in Lebanon. An official Israeli inquiry concluded that Israel's top civilian and military leaders bore ''indirect responsibility'' for the killings, but were not directly involved.

Resorts International Inc., which opened the first legalized gambling casino in Atlantic City, disclosed yesterday that it was considering selling a major asset or conducting a refinancing of the company. The terse announcement, made after the company's stock spurted in price on the American Stock Exchange, provided no further details. But analysts theorized that Resorts might be looking to sell its gambling hall and hotel in the New Jersey city as the first step in a diversification plan. There was also speculation on Wall Street that Pan American World Airways, in which Resorts already owns about 12 percent of the outstanding stock, might be the object of any diversification efforts. Pan Am's stock was the most actively traded yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange, rising 25 cents, to $7.875, on a volume of 2,282,400 shares. Resorts' shares finished the day up $2.75, to $40.125.

President Reagan has sent Senator Paul Laxalt to the Philippines to discuss the worsening military, political and economic situation there, Administration officials said today. Officials said Mr. Laxalt, one of Mr. Reagan's closest friends, would probably meet President Ferdinand E. Marcos in the next two days. According to the officials, Mr. Laxalt, a conservative Nevada Republican, is carrying a message to Mr. Marcos from President Reagan. The White House declined to divulge details of the message, but Administration officials said Mr. Reagan wanted to ''express his concern'' about the situation in the Philippines.

Two Americans, Michael S. Brown and Joseph L. Goldstein, won the 1985 Nobel Prize in medicine yesterday for discoveries the Nobel committee in Stockholm said had ''revolutionized our knowledge'' of cholesterol metabolism and the treatment of cholesterol-related diseases. The two, who are University of Texas scientists, found that cells of the human body have receptors on their surfaces that trap and absorb bloodstream particles that contain cholesterol. The Nobel committee termed this discovery ''a milestone in cholesterol research,'' leading to a new understanding of how excessive levels of fatty cholesterol accumulate to clog human arteries and cause strokes and heart attacks. Genetic Flaw Uncovered The discovery, made in 1973, also revealed the underlying genetic flaw in those people who suffer from inherited high-cholesterol afflictions. Scientists said this suggested avenues of research toward developing effective drug treatments to reduce cholesterol levels.

International A Palestinian official sought by the United States in an Italian cruise ship hijacking was said by associates to have left Yugoslavia, possibly for Southern Yemen. Reagan Administration officials said Washington would continue efforts to apprehend the Palestinian leader, Mohammed Abbas, whom the White House has described as a mastermind of anti-Israeli and anti-American terrorism. [Page A1, Column 6.] The inquiry on four Arab hijackers has indicated the possible involvement of accomplices and possible links to other recent terrorism in Italy, according to Italian magistrates. Justices in Genoa said that an arrest order had been issued for a fifth man and that a sixth suspect might have left the vessel when she docked in Alexandria, Egypt, shortly before the hijacking. [A1:5.]

Governor Kean and Peter Shapiro, the Democratic candidate for Governor, clashed yesterday over the pace of toxic-waste cleanup in New Jersey. They also disagreed sharply over the propriety of accepting campaign funds from major government contractors and over the plans by the Navy to install a base on Staten Island for ships capable of carrying nuclear weapons. The candidates, in their second joint appearance of the campaign, agreed on the need to do more to reduce the state's auto insurance rates and to raise the quality of public education. But they spent most of the 90-minute debate before reporters and editors of The New York Times airing their differences, although their exchanges were cordial, never strident. With three weeks to go before the Nov. 5 election, public opinion polls indicate that toxic-waste cleanup is the issue most on the minds of New Jersey voters, and the one on which many will judge the credibility of the candidates.

WHAT is the best way to assure the public that the professional people who serve them - physicians, lawyers, architects, pharmacists, veterinarians and others - are competent? This question is at the root of an experiment in New York State, where all practicing certified public accountants will have to spend at least 40 hours in classes in each of the next three years to retain their licenses. Previously, an accountant's license was automatically renewed every three years, just as the state renews licenses of members of almost all professions as long as the person has not been guilty of an ethical or legal violation. In the 1970's many states moved to require continuing education of professional people as a way of assuring competence. By last year, for instance, continuing education was required in 41 states for chiropractors, in 39 states for certified public accountants, in 47 states for optometrists and in 12 states for lawyers.

Showboat Inc. is moving East. The veteran Las Vegas gambling operator is building a $200 million casino - the 12th in this city, and one of the biggest on the Boardwalk. It is an ambitious project for a modest Las Vegas player and Showboat's hopes are high. But many fear the project is so huge that the end result could be a corporate tale of broken dreams. ''Showboat executives are in over their heads,'' said Daniel R. Lee, an analyst with Drexel Burnham Lambert. Added Lee S. Isgur, an analyst with Paine Webber Inc., ''Showboat is betting the whole company on this casino and it's a project of enormous risk,'' Right now, the casino is an unfinished hulk astride the sea, with the din of the construction hammers drowning out the sound of the waves. But, when finished, Ocean Showboat, as it has been named, will be equal in size to such giants as Resorts International and Bally's Park Place. It will be a striking structure: The casino will resemble a huge ocean liner that has been washed up on shore, complete with a 60-lane bowling alley, a 2,000-car garage and a casino as big as two football fields.

Secretary of State George P. Shultz said today that although the Soviet Union's new arms-control proposals were ''deeply flawed,'' there could be ''real progress'' in the Geneva negotiations if the Soviet side is serious. In the Administration's most detailed appraisal of Mikhail S. Gorbachev's arms-control plan, Mr. Shultz said it ''could be a step forward'' and would be responded to ''positively'' by the Administration, despite the ''self-serving'' nature of some of the proposals. With President Reagan and Mr. Gorbachev, the Soviet leader, due to meet in Geneva in little more than a month, Mr. Shultz seemed determined to adopt a more positive attitude toward the meeting, and not be as negative as some officials have been in the past, even though he reacted critically toward the specific Soviet proposals. Tells of Reagan Compromise At the same time, Mr. Shultz used his speech to the 31st annual meeting of lawmakers from NATO countries in San Francisco to disclose that President Reagan had made a compromise decision on Friday to settle a major dispute within the Administration over future American compliance with the 1972 treaty that limits Soviet and American missile defenses.

IN little more than a decade the new discipline of sociobiology has transformed the study of animal behavior and brought a blossoming of insights into why animals act the way they do. Its relevance to humans, however, remains hotly disputed. Guided by the field's new theories, zoologists have begun to peer at animals through a different lens, enabling them to explain some longstanding puzzles of evolution and to reach some startling conclusions. They say they finally understand the self-sacrificing toil of worker bees, for example, and why females are often coy. They say that explaining animal behavior often requires, as one scientist put it, viewing males and females ''as if they were two different species.'' ''The study of the evolution of behavior has been revolutionized,'' said Melvin Konner, chairman of anthropology at Emory University and a close observer of the sociobiology scene.

The Federal Reserve Board is not bursting with farmers or small bankers. In Wayne D. Angell, who was nominated last week to be a member of the Federal Reserve Board, the central bank will now have someone with first-hand experience in dealing with the consequences of Fed policy on both troubled areas. By Mr. Angell's reckoning, his correct interpretation of earlier Fed decisions enabled banks under his family's control to avoid the fate of many financial institutions that have lent heavily to the nation's farmers. ''In 1981 I became convinced that the monetary policy in place would cause the value of farm land to fall by 40 percent,'' the 55-year-old Kansan said. ''None of the directors believed me except my brother, but they agreed that we would not lend more than 60 percent of the value of any piece on land.''

In his 11 years as an industrial psychologist with Merrill Lynch & Company, George P. Hollenbeck has become a keen observer of life in the world's largest, fastest-moving and most important financial disrict. ''People on Wall Street get into a working pitch,'' said Mr. Hollenbeck, Merrill Lynch's vice president and policy adviser, who has spent the last month settling into a quiet, new office here. ''Some of them attain a level of alertness in Manhattan that may be hard to duplicate.'' But for more than 3,000 Merrill Lynch employees, including Mr. Hollenbeck, the center of the financial universe is moving west. After four years of meticulous planning, the company is splitting its operations between Wall Street and two new suburban office complexes in central New Jersey.