What was going on when I was born?

The directors of the International Finance Corporation, an agency of the World Bank, are expected next month to approve creation of a mutual fund that will invest in securities of companies listed on third world stock exchanges, a spokesman said today. The Emerging Markets Growth Fund, as it is being called, is intended to accelerate capital investment in developing countries, which produce one-third of the globe's gross national product over all but account for only 3 percent of its corporate securities. Administration Support The idea is enthusiastically supported by the Reagan Administration, which has made the pursuit of market-oriented policies a key plank of its international economic policy. Some in the investment community, however, were skeptical. ''I see it as being a public relations, and do-good enterprise, rather than a serious money-making proposition,'' said Arthur Lipper 3d, chairman of the New York and Foreign Securities Corporation, an institutional brokerage firm.

Corporate America is finally getting back at the raiders. The Federal Reserve Board's proposal to limit so-called junk bonds in hostile takeovers has become the rallying cry for big corporations tired of living in fear of attack. Big companies, and the lawyers and investment bankers who represent them, are scurrying to express their support of a Federal Reserve move to impose margin requirements on certain types of junk bond takeovers - a move that would restrict the ability of small companies to swallow companies many times their size. ''What we are seeing is old corporate America rising up against aggressive law firms and aggressive investment banks whose primary interest is in making a buck,'' said Perrin Long, a brokerage analyst with Lipper Analytical Securities. Decision Before New Year's At the same time, emerging growth companies, and those who raise money for them, are attacking the measure. And Wall Street, which usually presents a united front, is divided on the issue. The public comment period ends Monday and the Federal Reserve must decide before New Year's Day.

Friday A PAUL WINTER SOLSTICE Tomorrow brings the shortest day and the longest night of the year, and once again the Paul Winter Consort will celebrate the winter solstice with three concerts at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. The mystical music of wolves, whales and a canyon wren will complement the Paul Winter ensemble at 8 tonight and Saturday, but Saturday night's performance is already sold out. Because of the demand for tickets, a special matinee has been added at 2 P.M on Saturday; it will have its climax as the winter solstice actually arrives at 5:08 P.M. Tickets are $12 and $20, with children under 12 admitted at half-price for the afternoon performance only. The cathedral is at West 112th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. Information: 662-2133.

Texaco Inc. is scheduled to go into a Federal court today to argue for protection from the Pennzoil Company that Texaco maintains is essential to its functioning as a going concern. Without a preliminary injunction from Judge Charles L. Brieant Jr. in Federal District Court in White Plains, Texaco would face the burden of posting a $12 billion bond or the possibility of Pennzoil putting liens on its property. Those actions, in Texaco's words, would ''destroy the company as a viable entity'' before it could appeal a Texas court's award against it of $10.53 billion plus interest. Without the injunction, according to lawyers involved in the case, Texaco's options would be distasteful: negotiating a settlement with Pennzoil from a position of weakness or filing for bankruptcy protection. If the injunction were denied, Texaco could also seek relief on the bond and lien issues from the Texas courts or through an agreement from Pennzoil.

Hannah Kaplan spends her day surrounded by men's underwear. As owner of Underworld, a nine-month-old boutique on West 72d Street, her world is one of silk briefs and satin boxer shorts, combed cotton nightshirts and cashmere socks. ''This is tasteful but luxurious,'' she said, fingering a charmeuse robe and matching pair of shorts that sell for almost $300. ''And these are really hot,'' she said, pointing toward a rack of $30 patterned silk bikini briefs in purple, red and black.

After extensive criticism from the real estate and construction industries, the Reagan Administration has tentatively decided to withdraw its proposal to sell the Federal Housing Administration to private investors by 1990, Administration officials said today. However, some Administration officials are still committed to the idea, and the President's budget for the fiscal year 1987 will probably propose a study to determine whether it would be feasible to sell the agency, the officials said. Value Put at $3 Billion The budget, to be submitted to Congress in early February, will not specify a timetable for selling the agency, nor will the budget accounts reflect the expected proceeds of such a sale, the officials said. The Office of Management and Budget has estimated the value of the agency at $3 billion.

The Scarsdale creche was restored today after a five-year absence to Boniface Circle, a tiny public park in the center of this suburban village, culminating a legal struggle over constitutional rights that reached the United States Supreme Court. In Larchmont, another Westchester County community, a similar Nativity scene will go up over the weekend outside Village Hall. But in Cos Cob, a Connecticut suburb, firefighters have been barred from displaying a wooden cross. Scarsdale's wood-carved Nativity scene, a familiar display here until it became the focus of a dispute over the separation of church and state, was assembled in an hour and a half by its sponsors, the Scarsdale Creche Committee. It will remain up until Jan. 2. Cynthia Barsuhn, the acting chairman of the committee, said: ''I hope this is the end of the dispute. I'm sorry we had to go through it all.'' Mayor William Glendon agreed. ''I'm happy it's ended and that it restores the tranquillity that should exist at Christmas,'' he said.

International An armed man interrupted a trial in Nantes, France, and, with the aid of four robbery defendants, took about 35 people hostage and chained the judge to a chair. The gunman said he was a Palestinian guerrilla who wanted to ''give the French state a slap in the face.'' Over several hours, the captors released about half the hostages as they negotiated with France's national police chief. [Page A9, Column 1.] An Ethiopian official seeks to defect to the United States, according to a highly placed Washington source. The source said the official in the Marxist Government who is seeking asylum is Dawit Wolde Giorgis, who has headed Ethiopia's famine relief program. [A3:3-6.]

The Cuomo administration has given its enthusiastic support to a plan to use private funds to build emergency housing for 2,000 homeless families in New York City. Governor Cuomo, who called the plan ''an exciting idea,'' has directed two of his top aides to help execute it. ''I am committed to working as hard as we can to making this idea work,'' Mr. Cuomo said today. Under the proposal, $100 million would be raised from real-estate developers, businesses and private citizens to build the dwellings on five government-owned sites in the city.

The management of R.H. Macy & Company said yesterday that it was lowering its offer to buy the retailer in a leveraged buyout to $68 a share in cash from $70 a share. The revised bid, coming two months after Edward S. Finkelstein, Macy's chairman, and Mark S. Handler, president, announced the original offer, reflected the problem the group had in getting financing for the higher offer. ''The new price is what the financial markets indicate is the acceptable price,'' a spokesman for the buying group said. ''The $70 offer was too high.''

In what may be an ominous sign for the economy, a Government survey predicted today that American businesses will cut back on investment spending by 1 percent in 1986. The Reagan Administration called the survey's findings too pessimistic and some private economists agreed. However, others said business investment is likely to be sluggish at least through the first half of next year as industry continues to suffer from intense foreign competition.

AN excited 3-year-old stood up on his seat at a recent performance of ''The Nutcracker'' at Lincoln Center as the curtain rose, and cried out, ''Where is Clara?'' ''Where is Clara?'' The 3-year-old, who was attending his first live performance, had learned the story and characters by heart from his parents and he was eager, as were all the youngsters around him, to see the dancers spring magically to life on the big stage. During this holiday season, thousands of children - and their parents - will have the chance to attend musicals, plays, ballets, operas and puppet and magic shows in the New York area. Parents will find a large selection for the very young, such as ''The Nutcracker'' by the Papageno Puppet Theater; for children of all ages, such as ''Thimble-Bellies,'' by the madcap Paper Bag Players, and for adults as well as children, such as the imaginative Broadway show ''Big River.'' Following is a selection of holiday performances that are geared to children and/or to children and their parents.