What was going on when I was born?

Efforts to smuggle American arms to the Philippines are on the rise, with some of the weapons intended for close associates of President Ferdinand E. Marcos who have assembled large private armies, according to American officials and Filipino business executives. The resurgence of private armies in the Philippines is a result of the growing turmoil there, according to American and Filipino officials. Some American officials said the private forces could be a threat to the Philippines' stability, especially should Mr. Marcos's health deteriorate. George A. Rodriguez, an official with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms who until recently headed its program to combat international trafficking in arms, said: ''The recent trend is an increase in international arms trafficking to the Philippines. It involves Filipinos in the United States, in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Reno, Las Vegas and Chicago.

''THE GOLDEN EYE: An International Tribute to the Artisans of India'' at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum is consistently arresting to look at. But it is not, in any traditional sense, an ''art exhibition,'' for it treads that ambiguous terrain somewhere between art and craft. It also treads the terrain - no less ambiguous in India - between craft and industry, craft and starvation, and craft and kitsch. The show arose because many of the ancient and traditional skills of Indian craftsmen are losing their hold upon the Indian market. Someone who can buy a 10-gallon plastic jar and carry it home with one finger is not going to go back to toting jars that break his back. Young painters who can buy commercial brushes and paints in the market may not care to make their own brushes in Pichawai style by stuffing the tail hair of squirrels into pigeon quills. Even less, perhaps, will they want to prepare the transparent chrome yellow that is made from the urine of cows that have been fed with ripe mango leaves. What to do, if those skills and those pungent colors are not to be lost and those craftsmen forced out of business?

Time Inc., in a major restructuring aimed at tightening control over its fast-growing magazine business, yesterday announced the formation of a four-man executive team to run the publications. Kelso Sutton, the 46-year-old executive vice president of Time Inc., has been named president and chief executive of the group. The move was seen by several analysts as strengthening the position of Mr. Sutton, who will also retain his title at Time Inc. J. Kendrick Noble, a first vice president at Paine Webber Inc., said: '' It appears to give Kelso more time to perform in his role as executive vice president at Time Inc. It helps relieve him of day-to-day responsibilities and permits him to focus on new projects for the magazine group.''

International The U.S. and Soviet leaders ended a two-day summit meeting in Geneva without achieving breakthroughs on key issues. But President Reagan and Mikhail S. Gorbachev approved a joint statement agreeing to step up arms negotiations and to meet more regularly. [Page A1, Columns 3-6.] President Reagan flew home and told Congress that his intensive talks with Mikhail S. Gorbachev in Geneva had opened the way for a ''new realism'' in American-Soviet relations and had created ''room for movement, action and progress.'' [A1:3-4.]

The Secret Service said yesterday that it had disrupted a scheme to defraud telephone companies of more than $1 million in revenue from long-distance phone calls. The arrests were the first since the Secret Service was empowered a year ago to pursue those who make such illegal calls. The agency's first move was the arrest of five Dominicans, who were accused of operating centers - typically apartment living rooms in upper Manhattan - where people could make the illegal long-distance telephone calls, usually for reduced rates.

Before its collapse last Friday, the First American Mortgage Company made loans at triple-digit interest rates, according to court records obtained here today. And lawyers familiar with First American's practices said it lent money to borrowers whose credit rating was so poor that they were cut off from normal banking sources. First American, a Baltimore-based mortgage banker, is being sued by an E. F. Hutton & Company subsidiary that bought some of its mortgages and now accuses it of fraud. The court records, from an earlier lawsuit filed against First American, indicated that in some cases First American made loans on which the annual interest charge exceeded 100 percent. First American got such high interest, the records showed, mainly by giving borrowers far less than the amount of the promissory notes they signed - a borrower might receive $22,000 on a $25,000 loan -and by charging as much as 40 percentage points ''up front'' as an origination fee.

Inspired by signs that the Government may curb its voracious appetite for funds, the stock market soared yesterday, with all major indexes going deeply into record territory. The Dow Jones industrial average, with a steady climb throughout the session, bettered its previous record by more than 22 points, as it closed at 1,462.27, for a gain on the day of 23.05 points. The Standard & Poor's 500 index, a broader gauge of market action, rose 2.42 points, to 201.41. It was the first time in its history that the index topped the 200 level.

Already under pressure from cheap steel imports, the LTV Corporation chose to double its bet on steel: In 1983, it agreed to acquire the Republic Steel Corporation, reasoning that by using the best operations from Republic and its own Jones & Laughlin steel unit, it could fashion a more efficient operation to compete with foreign rivals. Its timing could not have been worse. The nation's second-largest steelmaker, after the United States Steel Corporation, has slashed production costs. But steel imports have actually risen since it struck the deal with Republic, and prices are lower, keeping LTV Steel mired in red ink. Its losses over the last four years total $1.36 billion and, with analysts forecasting little change in steel demand through 1986, LTV has been pressed into selling some profitable assets and delaying some maturing debt in an effort to outlast its frustrating cash squeeze.

A counterintelligence analyst for the Navy was arrested today on espionage charges, accused of selling classified code information to the Israeli Government, Federal officials said. The civilian analyst, Jonathan Jay Pollard, 31 years old, was arrested near the Israeli Embassy here. Federal officials said he was trying to get the Israeli authorities to grant him political asylum. The Israeli Embassy acknowledged through a spokesman that Mr. Pollard was arrested outside the embassy's gates this morning. ''But we have no further information,'' said the spokesman, Gabi Raubitschek.

The police shot dead at least six people in this black township today, including several elderly women, according to witnesses. The deaths brought the number killed by the authorities so far this week to at least 23. The police confirmed only two deaths in the township near Pretoria, saying a man and woman were shot dead when groups of blacks attacked police vehicles with gasoline bombs and stones. Hundreds Injured The shootings occurred as thousands of residents gathered at a local government office to protest high rents, the presence of police and army squads in the township and the banning of weekend funerals.

A review of the New York City Ballet yesterday misidentified a company member who died in September. He was John Bass.

The House Ways and Means Committee tonight approved a stiff minimum tax on wealthy people and profitable corporations. The measure would prevent many individuals and companies from taking advantage of tax breaks to trim their tax liability to little or nothing. It would also raise billions of dollars more than President Reagan's minimum tax plan. The committee then began debating limits on deductions for business meals and entertainment, one of the few thorny issues remaining.