What was going on when I was born?

More than two decades ago, the Azcarragas, one of Mexico's wealthiest families, and Televisa, the giant Mexican broadcasting company that the family controls, started an American television network aimed at Hispanic viewers. Begun with a single station in San Antonio, the SIN Television Network (formerly the Spanish International Network) today dominates the rapidly growing business of Spanish-language television in this country. It attracts almost $60 million in annual advertising revenues, and in cities with large Hispanic populations, such as New York, Miami and Los Angeles, its ratings sometimes rival those of major network affiliates. Now the Azcarragas, together with SIN's president, Rene Anselmo, a 59-year-old United States citizen and longtime Azcarraga employee, are embroiled in a bitter legal and regulatory contest to defend their empire against attacks on two fronts. At stake is ownership of seven television stations that they hold through separate companies and that make up the core of the network. Those stations are WXTV, Channel 41, in the New York area, and UHF outlets in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, San Antonio, Phoenix and Fresno, Calif.

Mayor Koch yesterday ordered a new campaign to remove homeless people from the streets on freezing nights this winter and take them to shelters or hospitals, whether or not they are willing to go. Under the new policy, the police will be empowered to remove the homeless from the streets whenever the temperature drops below freezing at night. Hundreds of homeless men and women could be affected, but officials said they expected most to go with the police voluntarily. Mr. Koch also announced that a psychiatrist would be dispatched each night to observe homeless people who congregate at major transportation hubs - the Port Authority Bus Terminal, Grand Central Terminal and Pennsylvania Station - and to order the hospitalization of those unable to care for themselves.

The General Motors Corporation said yesterday that it expected to complete the acquisition of the Hughes Aircraft Company before the end of the year. G.M. also said it would alter the way it reports the earnings of subsidiaries with their own class of stock. In a solicitation statement issued in connection with the acquisition, G.M. also disclosed that the privately held Hughes had experienced an earnings decline this year after five years of steady growth. The statement contained many financial details about both Hughes and the auto maker's own Delco Electronics operations. The Hughes and Delco units are to be combined to form the new subsidiary, the G.M. Hughes Electronics Corporation.

SOME common household objects seem so ordinary, so ubiquitous, that most of us never notice the fine points of their design. But whether it is something as humble as a paper cup dispenser, as functional as an electric blanket control, as satisfying as old-fashioned kitchen china, or as sophisticated as a modern stacking chair, the care and attention that industrial designers have put into the development of the product are part of its success in the marketplace. In the case of the four items described above - all designed by American companies and produced in the millions over a period of years - their creators must have been doing something right. Successful designs can take years to get off the drawing board and into the marketplace, however. David Rowland's now famous stacking chair is such an example. In the 1950's, when the designer came to New York and worked for Norman Bel Geddes, he recalled: ''I wanted to do a chair. That was my hobby. I didn't have a client and worked on it on and off for eight years.'' He knew the chair ''could not rely on beauty alone,'' he said. ''I needed to think of added features.''

A background report on Friday headed ''Mormons at a Glance'' misstated the formal name of the Mormon Church. It is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Israel's 14-month-old national unity Government tottered on the brink of collapse tonight after Prime Minister Shimon Peres threatened to dismiss Ariel Sharon, the Minister of Industry and Commerce. Mr. Peres, the Labor Party leader, said he would take the action unless Mr. Sharon, a member of the Likud bloc, offered what Mr. Peres regarded as an adequate apology for a recent series of unusually harsh denunciations of Mr. Peres's leadership. Mr. Peres said Mr. Sharon had until Thursday to produce the apology. Shamir Responds to Peres Yitzhak Shamir, the Likud bloc leader and Foreign Minister, responded to Mr. Peres's challenge by declaring that if the Prime Minister tried to dismiss Mr. Sharon, Likud would consider it ''a breach'' of the national unity coalition agreement and would demand Mr. Peres's resignation and call for new elections.

Halley's comet has arrived. After much ado by astronomers and sellers of telescopes, T-shirts, books and excursions to exotic viewing places, the comet has now emerged from the dim recesses of space and, displaying an unexpected early brightness, is coming into increasingly clear view for those who look into the night sky with binoculars. The best opportunities so far to view the comet with binoculars will begin tonight and run through Sunday night. The Moon is new and thus not a source of much interfering light. The comet will be fairly high above the Eastern horizon and near an easily recognizable feature in the sky, the cluster of stars called the Pleiades. Visible Through Night The comet, which returns to the inner solar system roughly every 76 years, should be visible through the night, beginning at about 9 P.M. local time, throughout most of the world, except in extreme southern latitudes. Much will depend, however, on weather and proximity to city lights. The sky must be clear and dark. People in cities and most suburbs will have little or no chance to see the comet, no matter how powerful their binoculars.

WHEN Sheila H. Forman thinks of cars and television sets, she thinks of Japan. She associates coffee makers with Germany, leather goods with Italy, rugs with India and linens with Ireland. The best pottery, she says, comes from Mexico. Watches and chocolates come from Switzerland. Perfume comes from France, sweaters from Britain. And what product springs to mind at the mention of the United States?

SUZANA MONACELLA is an overbooked New Yorker. ''I start my week thinking, 'This week I can do it,' '' said the fashion designer. ''A friend will call to ask if we can have tea, and I say, 'Not this Thursday. Maybe next Thursday.' Now I have my mother staying with us. Where do I have the time to see my own mother? The answer is, I don't.'' Once upon a time the phone would ring. Perhaps it was an old friend, a college roommate, a childhood friend, in town for a couple of days. And from that call would come a modest reunion, a lunch, a hamburger, a drink. A whim and four telephone calls once meant the easy arrangement of an impromptu lunch among friends. Not today. These days people have jogging schedules, health club dates and exercise classes and take evening courses in philosophy, investment strategies and wine appreciation. They attend meetings of professional associations, go to cocktail parties for ''networking'' and find themselves booked in a seemingly unending schedule of appointments for drinks and dinners. The impromptu date, it seems, has largely vanished.

It is not a matter that suggests complexity: the windows leak. So, comes the thought, replace them. But not on the Upper West Side, where nothing is simple. And not when the building has just been declared a New York City landmark, which protects it from changes that do not have the approval of the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Because of an editing error, an article in Business Day yesterday about a conference on the world monetary system incorrectly characterized remarks by Treasury Secretary James A. Baker 3d. Nothing he said there departed significantly from his recent pronouncements on the dollar.

A front-page article yesterday described the heavy increase in corporate air traffic in the New York area over the last decade.