What was going on when I was born?

The dollar's descent, after briefly bringing the currency to five-year lows early this week, has abated, but many analysts say the dollar is set for a steady decline in coming months. The only argument seems to be over how fast it will go. The dollar was mixed yesterday in a very quiet market in advance of the Thanksgiving holiday. Late yesterday the dollar slipped to 2.5450 marks, compared with 2.5515 on Tuesday. It also eased to 201.10 yen, from 201.19.

International Mikhail S. Gorbachev said his talks with President Reagan were a success and he declared that preparations for the next summit meeting should begin at once. The Soviet leader spoke in an 80-minute televised speech. [Page A1, Column 6.] The U.S. does not plan to modify its current negotiating proposals significantly before the Geneva arms talks convene again in January, Kenneth L. Adelman, the director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency said. [A3:1-3.]

''It's often said that the English just can't understand any of the Irish, and I think we just have to accept that that's true.'' - Edward Heath, former Prime Minister of Britain. [A11:4.]

The Discoveries column in The Living Section yesterday misstated the price of the Hanukkah menorahs designed by Robert Lipnick. They are $250 each.

Two Israeli diplomats involved in the collection of scientific information have been recalled to Israel from the United States because of their connections with an American Navy employee accused of selling secrets to Israel, Government sources said today. One man was based in Israel's Washington embassy, the other in the New York consulate, The two diplomats are already back in Israel, the sources said. One arrived late last night and the other earlier in the week. Both are being kept out of sight, the sources added. The sources said the two were recalled in order to avoid the possibility that the United States Government would expel them or question them about the case.

Mrs. V. can still remember the day her oldest daughter died, leaving a 3-month-old baby and a 5-year-old child. She said that she and her daughter had gone to a dime store and that ''we bought the baby a nightgown and booties.'' ''My daughter,'' Mrs. V. said, ''she was really happy with those little things for the baby and we had a good day.'' That night, Mrs. V. said, her daughter had an asthma attack. ''She woke up suffocating and just like that she died,'' Mrs. V. recalled quietly. ''The little girl saw it all,'' she added in a whisper, nodding at the bright, sturdy grandchild sitting politely on the living room sofa.

The Administration has thrust itself into an international dispute over the availability of genes essential to the world's supply of food. The Administration is vigorously opposing a plan, tentatively agreed to Tuesday at a United Nations conference in Rome, to establish a new global system for collecting and storing endangered genetic resources of plants, including rootstocks, seeds and tissues. The plan, offered by delegates from more than 100 countries at the 23d Conference of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, called on industrialized nations to provide up to $100 million a year to third-world countries interested in collecting and storing rare plant varieties that have valuable genetic characteristics. Most of the plant and animal genes useful to agriculture have been found in the less-developed nations of the southern hemisphere.

The House of Commons gave its overwhelming approval tonight to Britain's agreement with the Irish Republic that allows Dublin a consultative role and official presence in Northern Ireland. Despite pleas made by Government and opposition spokesmen alike, the 473-to-47 vote in favor of the British-Irish accord appeared certain to lead to a mass resignation from the House by the 15 representatives of the province's Protestant majority. The Unionists, as they are known on account of their commitment to the idea that the province must remain forever British, condemned the accord as a fatal concession to the nationalist cause of ending Ireland's partition. The goal of the mass resignation, said to be the first of its kind in Parliament's history, would be to force a series of by-elections in Northern Ireland that could be interpreted as a referendum on the agreement that Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher signed 12 days ago with her Irish counterpart, Garret FitzGerald.

Mikhail S. Gorbachev said in a speech today that his discussions with President Reagan had been a success and that preparations for the next summit meeting, in 1986, should start now. Mr. Gorbachev's televised 80-minute speech to the Supreme Soviet, or parliament, marked his first effort since a news conference in Geneva to report on the summit meeting to the Soviet public. Reading from a prepared text, he explained why he had decided to meet with Mr. Reagan and why he regarded the results as encouraging despite the absence of progress in arms control. Test Freeze a Topic in Geneva Mr. Gorbachev called on Mr. Reagan again to join in a halt of nuclear testing to strengthen trust. Moscow announced a freeze in July but said it would expire Jan. 1 unless Washington joined in. The Americans have refused on the ground that they need further tests to catch up with the Russians.

Markets Stocks advanced strongly, led by technology and drug issues. The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 18.92 points, to 1,475.69. That surpassed the previous record set only last Thursday, of 1,462.27. In November, the Dow has climbed more than 85 points. Volume during the day was a busy 143.7 million shares. Analysts said that investors who had been lukewarm to the rally now feel compelled to enter the market. [Page D1.] The rally in the Treasury securities market resumed as dealers reported heavy demand at the auction of $7.5 billion of new five-year notes. Their yield, 9.13 percent at auction, was the lowest since the auction of April 1978, and well below the 9.62 percent average on a similar issue in August. [D12.] Rates on C.D.'s and bank money market accounts showed little change in the latest week. [D4.]

A Navy counterintelligence analyst has admitted that he provided Israel with hundreds of pages of classified military documents, including one stack more than 15 inches high of mostly top-secret papers, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said today. At a bail hearing, one of three court hearings today involving American citizens accused of espionage in the Washington area, law-enforcement officials also seemed to raise the possibility that the 31-year-old analyst, Jonathan Jay Pollard, had assembled documents that could be of interest to the Chinese Government. An F.B.I. agent testified that several classified documents relating to the Chinese military were found in a suitcase belonging to Mr. Pollard. His wife, Anne L. Henderson-Pollard, who has also been arrested on espionage charges, told a friend that she planned to ''make a presentation at the Chinese Embassy,'' the agent said.

With technology and drug issues providing extraordinarily strong leadership, the stock market rose sharply yesterday to new record ground, as Wall Street kept alive a tradition of climbing the day before Thanksgiving. Market analysts who keep track of such things say stock prices have risen 27 times in the last 33 tries on the day prior to the one-day Thanksgiving break. The market's record is even better the day after the holiday, rising in 29 of the last 33 attempts. From the start yesterday, there was little doubt that the tradition would remain intact. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 5 points after the first 30 minutes of trading, and nearly 10 an hour later. It ended with a 18.92-point gain, for a record close of 1,475.69.