June 26, 1989

LEAD: Thousands of lesbians and gay men marched down Fifth Avenue yesterday to celebrate gay pride and to commemorate the confrontation that began as a routine police raid on a gay bar 20 years ago and has come to signify the beginning of the gay-rights movement.

LEAD: Congressional investigators examining housing contract awards in the Reagan Administration are trying to determine how the word was passed to important Republicans that they could cash in on their connections.

LEAD: Camcorders, which were virtually unknown only five years ago, have become a part of everyday life in much of America, transforming the way millions of people are recording their most meaningful memories and, in the process, spawning a $2.3 billion-a-year business.

LEAD: After a decade of war, political conflict and American trade sanctions, the Nicaraguan economy has shrunk so far that it may rank as the poorest in the Western Hemisphere, with deeper hardships still to come, a new study has found.

LEAD: Leona Helmsley, who dubbed herself ''the queen,'' is scheduled to go on trial today on the tax-evasion and extortion charges that have dogged her for more than two years.