What was going on when I was born?

An article in Business Day on Wednesday about the Xerox Corporation's third-quarter results misstated the stock's closing price the day before. The stock rose $1.625, to $50, on the New York Stock Exchange.

One uses a recoilless rifle to fight the Soviet troops in this country. Another is assigned to an antiaircraft machine gun. A third said he joined the Afghan rebels to save his life; a fourth, out of disillusionment. A fifth compares the rebels' cause to that of the partisans fighting the Germans in World War II. The five, in their early 20's, are all Soviet citizens. They are among the tens of thousands of Soviet conscripts sent to Afghanistan to fight the rebels since 1979 and among the scores who have, for various reasons, deserted and defected.

Senator Jesse Helms has threatened to hold up President Reagan's nomination of an Ambassador to China until he receives a letter from the President promising that United States funds will not be granted to nations that coerce abortions and sterilization. Mr. Helms has bottled up the appointment of Winston Lord as Ambassador to China for nearly five weeks. This diplomatic issue, more so than others in the past, has aroused more interest in New York than in Washington, given Mr. Lord's background as a former head of the Council of Foreign Relations, as the husband of the novelist Betty Bao Lord and as an associate of former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger. But it turned out today that Mr. Helms, a conservative Republican from North Carolina, objects not to the nominee but to the policies of the equally conservative Reagan Administration.

The index of leading economic indicators, the Government's main forecasting gauge, rose one-tenth of 1 percent in September, the smallest gain since June. The rise in the index, which is supposed to foretell changes in the course of the economy, followed a much stronger August advance of nine-tenths of 1 percent. Many economists said the slight September increase was correctly forecasting the sluggish growth they expect in coming months.

Reflecting a surge in imports of cars, clothing, steel and other manufactured goods, the United States trade deficit grew to a record $15.5 billion in September, the Commerce Department said today. It was the widest monthly gap in history between what the country imports and what it exports. The trade deficit, which narrowed in July and August, widened in September despite a 17 percent depreciation of the dollar since February. A cheaper dollar is expected to make American exports more competitive abroad and foreign-made goods relatively more expensive and less competitive in this country.

The Soviet Union has informed the United States that Andrei D. Sakharov's wife ''will be free to leave the Soviet Union,'' Secretary of State George P. Shultz said today. In the first official confirmation of the reports that Yelena G. Bonner, Dr. Sakharov's wife, had been given permission to go abroad for medical treatment, Mr. Shultz said he had been given this information by a Soviet official. An aide said that Mr. Shultz held an unpublicized meeting this morning with Anatoly F. Dobrynin, the Soviet Ambassador, who provided the information about Miss Bonner. At a news conference, Mr. Shultz also appeared to deny flatly West German reports that a deal was being arranged for the release of Dr. Sakharov, a prominent Soviet physicist and rights activist, and Anatoly B. Shcharansky, the imprisoned Soviet Jewish activist, in return for some Eastern bloc spies.

THERE is an almost hidden New York, a New York in images of art and artifact, scattered in countless pieces throughout the city. It is the city preserved at the hands of artists and craftsmen and others who have caught it at a certain mood and moment in time that becomes immortal in their hands. These moments and perspectives are by no means hidden from those who visit the many museums, galleries and other institutions where the bits and pieces of this artistic urban kaleidoscope are on view. The searcher for this other New York can find Dutch rooms in a Brooklyn museum, an immaculately small-scale image of New York in Queens, a brilliant recap of centuries of city history told in 20 minutes of multimedia wizardry on the Upper East Side, a ''parade'' of old fire wagons on the Upper West Side and - everywhere - aged paintings and old photographs that give the feeling of New York when streams crossed Lower Manhattan or when Els thundered along its avenues.

Friday 'DRACULA' AT TOWN HALL Rolling fog, flaming crosses, and that infamously seductive Transylvanian count will set the proper Halloween weekend mood for a mime performance of ''Dracula'' at Town Hall tonight. With a cast of eight and an original score by Neal Kayan, the Bram Stoker classic is being staged by Morse Mime in a production that marks the company's 10th anniversary. The performance begins at 8 P.M. at 123 West 43d Street. Tickets are $12 to $20. Information: 840-2824. TANGOS AND SAMBAS Usually tango lovers focus on the exoticism of the dance, but tonight the Center for Inter-American Relations will present a concert called ''Tangos and Sambas'' for those interested in simply enjoying the music. Nelly and Cesar Vuksic, an Argentine husband-and-wife duo, will offer both tangos and the less-well-known samba ballads, with Mr. Vuksic accompanying his wife, a contralto, on piano. The program will include Argentine tangos, tangos by Samuel Barber and Igor Stravinsky, and the premiere of a tango written for the occasion by the American composer Joelle Wallach. The concert begins at 8 P.M. at 680 Park Avenue, at 68th Street. Tickets are $10. Information: 249-8950.

When bankers from across the country gathered at the New Orleans Superdome last month to attend an opening bash for the American Bankers Association convention the hot topic of conversation was not the Latin debt crisis, real estate lending or even the health of the economy. It was interstate banking and the frenzy of bank mergers that was set in motion by a Supreme Court decision last spring. That decision, which allowed banks to merge across state lines on a regional basis, has already touched off dozens of proposed mergers and set the stage for an even greater number, many of which were being hatched at the A.B.A.'s convention. But just as the trend is gathering steam, with regional bank stocks now among the best-performing issues, some criticism is surfacing. It ranges from claims by Wall Street analysts that prices paid for banks have been wildly expensive to predictions by banking professors that the mergers' promised economies of scale will not materialize.

President Reagan said today that the United States would offer a new arms proposal to the Soviet Union on Friday calling for ''very significant, balanced reductions'' of nuclear arsenals. ''I would characterize our arms control position as deep cuts, no first-strike advantage, defensive research and no cheating,'' Mr. Reagan said in the White House press room. The announcement came less than three weeks before he is scheduled to meet in Geneva with Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the Soviet leader. Secretary of State George P. Shultz will travel to Moscow this weekend for a planning conference with Mr. Gorbachev, which some Government officials have said may include discussions of the possibility for future summit meetings.

Salvagers this morning gingerly chipped a thick coating of corrosion off a bronze bell they hauled out of the sand off Wellfleet last month and exposed the name of a pirate ship whose fate has been the object of debate, search and wonder for 268 years. The inscription, which marine archeologists said constituted a definitive identification of the wreck, said ''THE WHYDAH GALLY 1716,'' with a symbol resembling a Maltese cross between each word. The ship went down on Feb. 17, 1717, laden with the booty of up to 52 other ships, according to contemporary accounts. In the folklore of Cape Cod, the story includes a witch and a fatal drunken celebration on board. The historical record itself is intriguing enough, complete with a trial of eight pirates in Boston, some of whom were hanged.

Canada today announced the deregulation of the price of both domestic and exported natural gas. The move completes the dismantling of the former Liberal Government's energy policy by the year-old Government of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, a member of the Progressive Conservative Party. Last June 1, Ottawa decontrolled crude oil prices under an agreement called the Western Accord. The same petroleum-producing provinces that signed that accord - Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia -signed today's agreement.