What was going on when I was born?

A former communications specialist for the National Security Agency was arrested early this morning and charged with spying for the Soviet Union. The arrest of the former specialist, Ronald William Pelton, 44 years old, was part of what officials described as an unprecedented crackdown on foreign spies working in the United States. Three other people were arrested on espionage charges in the last four days. It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Pelton was accused of spying for the Soviet Union while employed at agency, the nation's largest and most secretive intelligence agency. It intercepts and monitors sensitive communications around the world.

Under pressure from several highly organized and sometimes strident neighborhood organizations, some of this city's larger corporations are being asked to play a major and growing role in housing, educating and employing the poor. And in many cases the Hartford companies are responding with more cash and more community support than ever before. ''There are limits to what we can do, but we are stretching them every day,'' said Alison G. Coolbrith, vice president for corporate public involvement at Aetna Life and Casualty, Hartford's largest private employer. ''The private sector here is doing a remarkable job,'' said Alfred A. Gatta, the Hartford City Manager. Old and New Coexist Hartford, the state capital, is an urban paradox. Bright, new offices rise above grimy tenements. The white-collar employees of more than a half-dozen major banks and insurance companies coexist with the jobless and destitute.

Capt. Hani Galal, his head bandaged and dried bloodstains on his pilot's uniform, early today staunchly defended Egypt's storming of the Boeing 737 in which at least 50 people died. ''Our only hope was storming the airplane,'' Captain Galal, a pilot for 15 years, said. ''The hijackers were very desperate and bloodthirsty people. I think with such people we need to take no chances.'' At a dramatic news conference after midnight, Captain Galal, 39 years old, recounted the 24-hour ordeal in the cockpit of Egyptair Flight 648, describing how at one point he hit a hijacker with an ax.

At least 50 passengers aboard a hijacked Egyptair jetliner were killed here Sunday night when Egyptian special forces stormed the plane and the hijackers retaliated by tossing three grenades at the passengers, the authorities here said. The grenades set off an inferno, filling the Boeing 737 airliner with flame and thick smoke as Egyptian troops blasted their way into the plane through its baggage hold and poured gunfire down the cramped cabin, where passengers had been held in terror for nearly 24 hours. Three American passengers were reported aboard the plane and one of them, a woman, was reportedly killed by the hijackers before the assault began. Plane Left From Athens Airport The plane was hijacked Saturday night, shortly after it took off from the Athens airport on its way to Cairo. The Egyptian troops stormed the plane at 8:15 Sunday night, (2:15 P.M. Sunday, Eastern standard time). The operation lasted no more than 10 minutes, the Maltese Government said.

The six transit police officers charged in the 1983 death of Michael Stewart, who lapsed into a coma while in police custody and died 13 days later, were acquitted of all charges yesterday before an emotional crowd in State Supreme Court in Manhattan. Dozens of transit officers in the gallery cupped their hands over their faces in relief as the jury foreman, Monika Millard Cox, said ''not guilty'' to each count. The defendants immediately hugged and kissed their attorneys. Cheers and Epithets After the last defendant had heard his verdict, at about 3:15 P.M., the entire right side of the courtroom, where the defendants' families and colleagues sat, erupted with cheers and applause. But minutes later, as the officers drove away from the courthouse, about 100 protesters, shouting angrily and banging on their car hoods, heckled and jeered them.

''It's not perfect,'' said David L. Gunn, leaning back in his high-backed black leather chair with his feet on his desk. ''I'm not trying to give the impression that the place is a Swiss watch. But we feel we have established a little bit of credibility that I don't think we had before.'' Mr. Gunn, the president of the Transit Authority, was talking about the authority's accomplishments this year. During a relaxed interview in his sunny 13th-floor office at 370 Jay Street in downtown Brooklyn, he said that by the end of the year the Transit Authority would have met 80 percent of his 462 goals for 1985. Almost a third of the city's 6,000 subway cars will be graffiti-free by the end of the year, Mr. Gunn said. By Dec. 31, 1986, more than half of the fleet is expected to be clean.

WHEN William Greulich was ushered into an unmade hotel room earlier this month, he was suffering one of those indignities that routinely befall business travelers. But Mr. Greulich was not any ordinary traveler; he was a staff member of a group - in this case the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers - that would shortly spend about $500,000 for its annual convention at the New York Hilton. ''We were deeply embarrassed,'' said Gregory Gibadlo, the Hilton's director of marketing. ''We did handstands trying to figure out what happened.'' According to both Mr. Gibadlo and the society, the untidy room was virtually the only mishap in a four-day gathering of the society that concluded Nov. 16. Months of meticulous planning - of room allocation, banquet menus and linen, meeting space and registration booth design -and pricing go into a convention to insure that the group will return to the hotel next year. For the Hilton, it paid off. ''Things went even a little better than in prior years,'' said Robert Mende, executive director of the society, which has met at the Hilton since 1968.

International Hijackers' grenades killed 50 people aboard an Egyptair plane they had seized Saturday evening in Athens and forced to land in Malta. The grenades were thrown as Egyptian troops blasted their way through the plane's baggage hold and entered the cabin. [Page A1, Column 6.]

The type of management, training, equipment and response problems that characterized last December's gas leak disaster in Bhopal, India, exist in many American chemical plants, according to recent inspections and studies of the American chemical industry by a variety of experts. These problems, confirmed in interviews with 130 people over the past six weeks, have prompted growing apprehension about safety compromises at hundreds, perhaps thousands, of places handling toxic chemicals. Such concern is rising even as the Government and chemical industry are taking steps to improve. Last week, for example, it was disclosed that the Environmental Protection Agency had identified 403 highly toxic chemicals that could cause injury or death in a major accident, although not all are so potent as the one at Bhopal. The list was meant to help states and localities find potentially hazardous sites, prepare for emergencies and reduce risks.

''After the third victim was shot, I was prepared to do anything to prevent more killing, especially killings like these, in cold blood.

The national debate on overhauling the Federal tax system formally began one year ago this week. After three proposals - one by the Treasury Department, one by the President and one by the House Ways and Means committee - the original concepts of fairness and simplicity have become somewhat clouded. The architects in each instance, by trying to combine the precepts of economists, political ideology and the practicality demanded by groups representing individuals and corporations, left smudges on their blueprints. Each step of the way the proposals grew further away from their original goals in order to accommodate political philosophies and realities. Nevertheless, the proposal that emerged this weekend from the House Ways and Means Committee would still represent the most sweeping restructuring of the tax code in its 72-year history if it were passed intact. The measure goes up for a vote in the House of Representatives next month and then moves on to the Senate Finance Committee for consideration.

An article in Business Day on Saturday about Burger King's mobile restaurants misstated the name of the chairman and chief executive of the Pillsbury Company. His name is John M. Stafford.