What was going on when I was born?

Three million New York City residents were employed last month, the most in 12 years, the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics reported yesterday. And, the Government said, the city's unemployment rate for November was 7.3 percent - the lowest for the month since 1973. Samuel M. Ehrenhalt, the bureau's regional commissioner, said most of the job growth had occurred in the service industries and wholesale and retail trade, along with gains in government jobs. ''You are seeing the strength of the economy and the growth capacity that was in question during the 1970's for New York City,'' he said. ''I would give only two cheers for these figures, though, not three, because the manufacturing industry has not done as well.''

Britain signed an accord today with the United States allowing it to take part in research on an American missile-defense system. The pact, signed here by Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, was the the first such agreement that the United States has reached with any of its allies. The two Governments agreed that the terms of the accord would be kept secret ''in perpetuity.'' 'Real Jobs' Seen for Britain But Michael Heseltine, Britain's Defense Minister, said he was satisfied that there would be ''real opportunities, real contracts and real jobs'' for British science and industry.

Over the next few months, millions of New Yorkers will find light blue printed ballots in their mail boxes from New York Telephone asking them to vote for their favorite long distance phone company. The company will announce Wednesday that people who receive the ballots - those who have not yet chosen a long distance service - have just 30 days to vote and thus choose a long distance company. If they do not, the telephone company will select a long distance company for them. The ballot, sounding something like a warning on an overdue bill, says: ''Failure to respond will result in a long distance company being randomly assigned to you. This assignment will NOT be based on your particular calling needs.'' In short, the rules have changed. New York Telephone and the nation's other regional telephone companies have abandoned previous efforts to cajole telephone users into choosing a long distance company. New Jersey and Connecticut residents will receive similar ballots in the coming months.

Secretary of State George P. Shultz said today that the United States might take ''further steps'' on behalf of anti-Government rebels in Nicaragua. He said the action would be in response to what he called ''incontrovertible evidence'' that Cuban military advisers had become increasingly involved in combat against the American-backed insurgents. At a news conference, Mr. Shultz was not specific about these ''steps.'' But he strongly suggested that the Administration might ask for a prompt vote by Congress for military aid to the rebels to supplement the $27 million in what is defined as humanitarian aid permitted by current law.

House and Senate negotiators reached an ''agreement in principle'' today on legislation to require a balanced budget by 1991, ending a two-month struggle. The legislation, which first passed the Senate in early October, would set a series of declining ceilings on the deficit that would reach zero by 1991. The plan specified that if Congress and the White House could not agree on spending cuts and tax increases to reduce deficits to the annual ceilings, the President would be required to make spending reductions that would fall half in the military budget and half in domestic spending. Exemptions From Automatic Cuts Social Security, veterans' pensions, seven programs for the poor and interest on the national debt would be exempt from these automatic spending cuts. The automatic cuts would be limited in several health assistance programs and in Medicare, the health insurance program for the elderly.

More than two-thirds of the nation's toxic waste dumps have failed to qualify for permanent operating permits and must be closed, the Environmental Protection Agency said today. The agency said only 492 of the nearly 1,600 landfills now taking hazardous waste had certified that they meet requirements for monitoring underground water and financial responsibility under the toxic waste disposal law. Sites that did not make such a certification by Nov. 8 must cease operations. The relatively small number of waste sites that could meet legal requirements under the law, which was amended last year to stiffen requirements for safe disposal of hazardous materials, surprised environmental agency officials. Just before the Nov. 8 deadline the agency estimated that 30 to 40 percent of the operating landfills would be unable to comply.

A divided Federal Reserve Board proposed today to curb debt-financing practices that have been widely used in the latest wave of corporate takeover bids. The board has frequently expressed fears that the corporate financial world has become top-heavy with debt. By a vote of 3 to 2, the board proposed that the use of debt in a takeover bid be limited to half the purchase price. The effect of such a requirement, which the board wants to put into effect Jan. 1, would be to curtail buyouts in which the investor or group that seeks to take control of a company puts up almost no cash. What the board proposed was to apply its 50 percent stock market margin requirement to the issuance of debt in takeover bids. Thus, the buyer would have to put up at least half the purchase price in cash or other assets.

Bishop James W. Malone, head of the United States Conference of Bishops, asserted today that the extraordinary Synod, now in its final hours, had been a resounding success and amounted to an endorsement of bishops' conferences as local voices of the Roman Catholic Church. ''The Synod was a success,'' Bishop Malone said, ''a great success. The Synod provided a resounding reaffirmation of the teachings and spirit of the Second Vatican Council.'' Asked if the Synod of Bishops could heal the rift between church traditionalists and liberals, Bishop Malone said: ''Human attitudes change gradually. Emotions subside slowly.'

Leftist guerrillas hurled grenades and fired into an army bus in Bogota early today, killing two soldiers and wounding eight others, witnesses said. A joint command of several guerrilla groups took responsibilty for the attack in calls to local radio stations, saying the raid was in response to the killing two weeks ago of a rebel political chief.

The Japanese tourists come in the mornings, by the busload. They pass the photographs of burning ships and Japanese fighter planes. They wander outside to look at the placid blue harbor, empty save for the white memorial building that spans what remains of the battleship Arizona, sunk that day long ago. In the memorial, they walk past the plaque listing the 1,177 names of the dead. Through the silence of one recent day came the sound of the water lapping the charred ruins.

A high-ranking Nicaraguan official denied today that Cuban military advisers were taking part in combat against anti-Government rebels, and he accused the Reagan Administration of seeking an excuse to expand its aid to the insurgents. At the same time, Nicaragua announced that it was recalling its Ambassador to Washington for consultations to protest the rebel downing of a Sandinista transport helicopter Monday in which 14 people were killed. Nicaragua said the helicopter was hit by a missile supplied to the insurgents by the Central Intelligence Agency. The United States denied the charge. President Daniel Ortega Saavedra said the United States was ''mining the airspace of Central America and the continent'' by providing the rebels with antiaircraft missiles.

The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly today to condemn all acts of international terrorism as ''criminal.'' It was the first time that a resolution dealing with terrorism had ever been passed by the Assembly. The vote was 118 to 1, with Cuba voting against the resolution. Israel and Burkina Faso, the former Upper Volta, abstained. Iran was among the 37 nations that did not take part in the vote.