Presidents
Abraham Lincoln, lawyer, U.S. president. Finished barely a year of formal schooling. He self-taught himself trigonometry (for his work as a surveyor) and read Blackstone on his own to become a lawyer.
Martin Van Buren, U.S. president. Little formal education. Began studying law at the age of 14 while apprenticing at a law firm.
George Washington, U.S. president, general, plantation owner. Ended his education after a few years of elementary school.
Andrew Jackson U.S. President, lawyer. Little formal education;
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazilian president. With a fifth grade education only, he shined shoes on the streets of Sao Paulo as a kid but later became a steelworker union leader.
Scientists
Albert Einstein, Nobel prize-winning physicist, discoverer of the General and Special Theories of Relativity. He left school at 15.