What was going on when I was born?

A three-judge court today acquitted the armed forces Chief of Staff, Gen. Fabian C. Ver, and all 25 other defendants of involvement in the August 1983 assassination of the opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr. President Ferdinand E. Marcos immediately accepted a request for reinstatement by General Ver, who has been on a leave of absence as chief of staff since accusations were brought against him in connection with the assassination. In a statement Mr. Marcos said the reinstatement would be ''for such period as may be decided upon by me and on the advice of the senior officers of the armed forces.'' 'Thank God It's All Over' ''Thank God it's all over,'' said General Ver as security guards hurried him from the hot and crowded courtroom. In a 90-page decision that took more than two hours to read, the court supported the military's contention that Mr. Aquino was killed by a lone gunman, possibly working for the Communists, and not by a military conspiracy, as the prosecution had charged.

The gold medallion Leslie Goodman-Malamuth wears around her neck serves as an emblem of her lifelong struggle as the child of an interfaith marriage. On one side, it has a Star of David; on the other, an engraving of St. Christopher rescuing a shipwrecked child. Miss Goodman-Malamuth, a tall woman with honey-colored hair, turns the Star of David to the world because she identifies herself as a Jew. ''But there's this other side I keep hidden,'' she said. ''The medallion sums up the conflict.''

AT the end of a dirt road in Catskill, N.Y., the white 14-room Victorian house sits on a bluff overlooking the Hudson River and mountains in the distance. Were he in the mood for a picture-postcard view, it is what Michael Tyson, boxing's hottest new heavyweight (13-0, 13 knockouts), would see from the front porch of this house that has stood for more than a century. But on this cloudy yet mild November afternoon, his birds - the more than 100 pigeons he has acquired since turning pro last March - are what preoccupy Tyson. In a crew neck sweater and gray leather trousers, Tyson steps briskly across the front lawn to the coop built months earlier. Thirteen steps up a metal ladder, from a platform just outside the coop, Tyson shoos the birds and then watches them circle a nearby tree. In formation, the pigeons fly with a gentle whooshing sound broken only by the papery flapping of wings as one of the creatures breaks ranks and heads back to home base.

Here in the snow-carpeted farmland of the Genesee Valley, a sport of nobility has been recast as the winter amusement of teachers, gasoline station owners and country lawyers. The Genesee Valley Hunt was founded by W. Austin Wadsworth, an aristocratic Army major, in 1876 as an egalitarian pastime in this region 25 miles south of Rochester. This weekend, 60 riders, 29 hounds and a master of the hunt - a fifth-generation descendant of the valley's first settlers - spent four hours in high-speed pursuit of their elusive quarry. ''Come, come, come away,'' barked W. Austin Wadsworth, the founder's grandson and the master of the hunt, to his pack of hounds as Saturday's event was nearing its finish. A fox had been sighted and Mr. Wadsworth, with the help of his commanding voice and his sparkling, brass bugle, was regrouping the hounds, hoping they would pick up the fox's scent and start a chase.

American officials acknowledged today that three American military officers traveled on a C-130 aircraft to Malta with Egyptian commandos who carried out an assault on a hijacked Egyptair jetliner last Sunday. They said the senior United States military official on the flight was Gen. Robert Wiggin, who oversees United States military programs in Egypt. But the officials, who asked not to be named, said the American officers who accompanied the Egyptians were not specialists in counterterrorism and did not take part in the effort to retake the aircraft. The United States officers were sent primarily as a gesture of political support for the Egyptians, Administration officials said. ''These three men represented United States moral support for Egypt,'' said one high-ranking official.

The economy improved again in November, continuing the trend of the past two months, the nation's purchasing managers said yesterday in their latest monthly report. ''The continued improvement in the economy in November is encouraging,'' said Robert J. Bretz, the chairman of the National Association of Purchasing Management's Business Survey Committee. ''The impressive growth in new orders virtually assures a good fourth quarter.'' The purchasing managers composite index advanced to 53.3 percent in November, from 51.7 percent in October, marking the third consecutive month that the indicator registered over 50 percent. That followed a period of seven straight months when the indicator was under 50 percent. A reading above 50 percent indicates that the economy is expanding; a figure below 50 percent suggests that the economy is declining.

The Giants and the Cleveland Browns had expected their game today to be a defensive struggle. Instead, it was a high-scoring, big-play battle that was decided on the final play. The Giants could have won had Eric Schubert made a 34-yard field goal attempt. It would have seemed a routine expectation from someone who had kicked field goals of 35 and 40 yards earlier in the game. Instead, Bart Oates's snap was low, Schubert's line-drive kick sailed wide to the left and the Browns won, 35-33.

Jose Maria Ruiz-Mateos, the fugitive head of a business empire expropriated by the Spanish Government, was jailed here early this morning after being extradited from West Germany. The Spaniard arrived at a military air base in a subterfuge under the cover of darkness and was taken directly to an impromptu midnight court session, where he was indicted for fraud in the operation of his Rumasa Group, once Spain's largest private holding company. Mr. Ruiz-Mateos had fled Spain shortly after the Socialist Government of Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez seized Rumasa in February 1983. The Government said it was stepping in to avert a collapse of the nearly 230-company group, which ranged from banks to hotels and accounted for 1.8 percent of Spain's gross national product.

Prime Minister Shimon Peres apologized today for Israeli espionage in the United States, ''to the extent that it did take place,'' and said the Israeli Government unit purportedly involved in the espionage would be dismantled ''if the allegations are confirmed.'' For the first time, the Prime Minister appeared to concede publicly that someone in the Israeli Government was involved in ''spying on the United States.'' He promised to uncover all the facts ''no matter where the trail may lead.'' The Israeli statement did not address the question of United States access to the two Israeli diplomats linked to the espionage scandal who were suddenly withdrawn from Washington last week. But senior Government officials said Israel had agreed to allow the F.B.I. to send investigators to Israel to speak with the two diplomats. They were withdrawn from the United States the day after a United States Navy analyst was arrested on charges of spying for Israel.

The newly formed Congress of South African Trade Unions, the biggest labor federation in the country's history, said in its first policy statement today that it supported divestment by American and British companies of their South African holdings. In its statement the Congress also called for the resignation of President P. W. Botha, the nationalization of the country's mines, the withdrawal of troops from segregated black townships and the abolition of the so-called pass laws that limit blacks' access to white areas. Radical Political Agenda If those laws are not repealed within six months, the Congress's newly elected president, Elijah Barayi, told 10,000 supporters in a rugby stadium here, ''We are going to burn all the passes of the black man.'' The Congress says it has a following of 500,000 workers, predominantly black, from 36 labor unions.

Israel's explanations thus far of how one of its senior officials became involved with the spy suspect Jonathan Jay Pollard leave many important questions unanswered. Most of these questions revolve around the degree of ministerial responsibility for Israel's purported espionage operation in Washington. To put it simply: Was this reported spying affair an act of the Israeli Government, or was it the work of a ''loose cannon'' in Israel's intelligence apparatus? The answer to this question relates to the even larger issue of American-Israeli relations: Was the Israeli Government, as a Government, involved in a potentially hostile act against the United States, its closest ally? U.S.-Israeli Relationship Or, was a senior Israeli official acting on his own initiative running an espionage mission in the United States unbeknownst to the Israeli Cabinet? In addition, the espionage affair raises the issue of the precise character of the American-Israeli relationship. Is it a relationship purely between two sovereign nations or is it a relationship between members of the same family?

A major shift toward a form of prepaid group health care that has cut hospital costs and challenged traditional medical practices in other parts of the country is under way in New York City. Five major teaching hospitals in the city have signed a preliminary agreement with one of the country's largest health care companies to jointly operate a health maintenance organization, a network that would provide such prepaid care. Such organizations, more commonly called H.M.O.'s, are growing rapidly in other states, and other hospitals in New York are planning similar moves. Blue Cross to Have Own Plan At the same time, Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the largest regional health insurance plan in the country, said it would seek to persuade a third to a half of its 10 million subscribers to switch to an H.M.O. plan that it will begin offering next year. Most of the subscribers of Empire Blue Cross - which includes the former Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Greater New York and covers eastern and southern New York - have traditional health benefit plans.